Recently, the horn stopped working in my c2. While tracing the wires, I noticed the horn relay was hot to the touch, even though the car was not running. Is this normal or an indication of a problem?
Thanks

 

Should not be hot to the touch.

 

 

Thanks for getting back to me. Ireplaced the relay with a new one and that one is hot as well. I compared the wiring hook ups with on line pictures and it seems to be correct.
Does anyone have any ideas?

 

is your voltage regulator making the alternator over charging the system?

 

The only thing to make the horn relay case grow warm is an energized coil which should be accompanied by a blasting horn. What made you replace the horn relay to begin with?

Dan

 

The horn relay has full battery voltage at all times. It's where the red wire at the bulk head gets it current.

 

Maybe the horns are burnt out, I was gonna suggest measuring the voltage at the individual horn power leads in front of the radiator to see if they had 12V (they shouldn't unless something is triggering the horn circuit)...

You can always apply 12V to the horns themselves to test them (protect your hearing)...

 

If at some time the black wire going to the horn button in the wheel shorted, and someone disconnected the horns to stop them from blowing, the relay would stay energized and putting a new one in would get the same result. I would disconnect the black wire in the plug connector at the relay and see if it still gets hot. See picture. That would be easy to tell because the horns would have to still be unhooked or stuck or they would be honking. Could be a combination of the two problems.

 

I'm aware of that. What you are talking about has nothing to do with the coil. The coil is energized only when using the steering wheel horn button. Its not meant to stay energized all the time, that's why its getting hot. You have a completed primary horn circuit holding the relay closed, a wiring problem. Start looking.

Dan

 

Thank you everyone for your reply's. It is making sense that the relay is energized all the time as I had an issue with the battery going dead. I've had to keep it on a trickle charger since then, even though I run the car about every other weekend. I took the steering wheel apart as far as I could with out a wheel puller and didn't see a short under the horn button. I will follow the wiring as far as I can today and see what I find.
Many thanks for everyone's thoughts. If anyone has any other ideas please let me know.

Tom

 

Pull the connector in the picture I posted off the horn relay and measure from the black wire in the connector to ground. If you read anything other than infinity, you have a short on the black wire to the wheel or in the horn button.

 

Ok, so if i have this right, I'm not the best with a voltage meter. I tested by battery and got 13V and change. I touched the lead to the black wire you showed and to ground and got no reading. That means between the balck wire and the horn button there is a short? the relay is no longer hot, but the horn still doesn't work, I hope I didn't burn out the new relay.

Thanks again.
Tom

 

Not exactly. You want to be measuring resistance, not voltage. Set your meter and touch the red and black leads together. If the needle (or readout doesn't go to zero ohms (or very close), you're either not in the right mode, or the leads aren't working. Pull that connector I showed in the picture at the horn relay with the black wire in it. Put the red meter lead on that black wire connector in the connector that you pulled off. Connect the black lead to ground. The meter should not change from the reading you got when you were looking at the meter with it not connected to anything (open, or infinite resistance). When you connect the leads as I described, the reading shouldn't change on the meter. Then if you leave it connected and press the horn button, the meter should move very close to zero (the reading you got when you touched the two leads together). If you don't have or aren't familiar with reading a meter, you should get someone to help that knows how to read ohms (resistance) on the meter.
After you verify that, then you can move to other places to check. The only thing that makes sense to me based on your initial question is that the black wire or horn button shorted in the steering column and someone disconnected the green wire going to the horns so it wouldn't blow. Then the relay would get hot and putting in a new relay wouldn't stop that. Since it's not getting hot now something else is going on, too.

 

If the grn and blk wires on the brown connector simply energize the coil (grn to + and blk to -), and the coil is always being energized, you should read ~12-13.5 volts when setting your meter to dc volts and putting the red and black probes into the appropriate lugs on the brown plug.

 

The green wire doesn't energize the relay, it comes off the contacts that feed the 12v from the red wire source to the horns. The relay is energized by having 12v from the red wire connector on one side of the coil, and then grounding the black wire by pressing the horn button and that completes the circuit to energize the relay. Nothing is on the green wire until after the relay is energized which pulls the internal contacts together feeding the 12v to the green wire and thus the horns. The relay will still work normally and click closed with the green wire not connected, but of course the horns won't blow.

 

Many thanks again. I'm out to try it.

 

Again many thanks. I went out with the meter set it to ohms. touched the leads, it went to zero. Pulled off the relay and the black wire you instructed. Touched the red lead to the black wire and the black lead to ground. Had my lovely and talented assistant hold the horn button down and the meter did not move. next step is to buy a wheel puller so I can take the steering column apart.

 

I think 65GGvert has you on the right track; its not that hard to inadvertently pinch that horn wire as it snakes down the column... On a '63 there is a horn wire connector under the dash (not sure on your car)...you can disconnect that and if the relay de-energizes the problem is definitely in the steering column...

 

I don't know that you need a wheel puller. Pull off the horn cap and check the contacts and button area. What you describe is different from relay getting hot. Your symptom is black wire open or horn button or contact issue as you described it now. I don't really know what all is happening now, but you need to make sure the horns are connected and working, in addition to the horn button not working. You obviously have, or had, more than one thing going on.