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My new-to-me C3 has an inoperative horn, and I need some help troubleshooting.
I've read a lot of forum posts on the subject, but I'm new to the world of classic cars and need a more detailed description of how to assess the problem.
I've identified that my 72 has a single horn in between the headlights. I've located the horn relay under the hood, left fender.
When I compare the wiring at the relay to my docrebuild diagram it gets a bit confusing. I've attached some pictures of how it's connected.
Now, to test and isolate the problem:
I have 12V to the red wires at the relay. To test the horn itself, do I disconnect the green one at the relay and touch it against the reds?
What are the next steps, if the horn works that way?
It feels like the steering wheel button can't really be depressed, but I have no Corvette experience to compare it against.
The first test I would perform, disconnect positive wire from horn and using test leads from any small 12 volt battery, touch the positive and ground wire to the horn. If you get a honk, put the plastic connector back on and then proceed to the horn button on the steering wheel. Most of the time it the horn or the contacts in the steering wheel. Willcox has tech help on the steering wheel contacts. Look at vendor catalogs for illustrations showing components.
From: Loud, Raw and Dangerous 1968 327 4S in Southern California
You should hear the horn relay click when the steering wheel button is pressed (car off and listening at the relay). If not then I would think the issue is in the steering wheel contacts. Others have cleaned the rust off of the parts and had the horn start working again. My button definitely moves when I press the edges.
Thanks!
I followed this troubleshooting guide.
The horn works, when I ground the relay to the frame. This leads me to troubleshoot the steering column or wheel buttons.
There's nothing depressable on my steering wheel button.
I'll pull up some stuff on Wilcox as you recommended.
I put this guide together because I need pictures to figure things out
It explains the parts then covers how they work together. This is my 69 but should be similar to your 72.
That horn button is more complicated than it looks, gotta get everything aligned correctly.
Thank you, that's amazing!
I'm good with pictures too
So, started taking the pieces off.
Button and retainer look good.
There are no shims.
No horn contact piece. There was a bent piece of metal under the horn button...
I took of the hub nut, but will I need a puller to remove the hub from the column?
I want to inspect what's underneath so I can get the correct parts.
Confirm I can't fix this with just a contact piece, without pulling the hub?
Yes, that's what you need. You'll have to take everything off back to start on page 6 of my doc.
Maybe I'm getting the name wrong, but when I remove the large center nut, the steering wheel and the thing it's attached to (I thought that was the hub), does not come off.
How do get to the stage of page 6?
Interesting that your horn assembly is different than my 73, maybe because of the tilt/tele? You can get a LOANER steering wheel puller at the auto pats stores, or get one at Harbor Freight at a reasonable cost.
Interesting that your horn assembly is different than my 73, maybe because of the tilt/tele? You can get a LOANER steering wheel puller at the auto pats stores, or get one at Harbor Freight at a reasonable cost.
Yea the tilt-tele has a different setup under the horn button.
Confused me the first time I started looking this up!
Does a 72 standard column (non tilt-tele) need any of these spacers?
It's not shown in the pictures here.
I want to make sure I order all required parts
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72 horn not working - need help troubleshooting
