Problem with horn contact/button
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 364
Likes: 39
From: Sebastian FL
Problem with horn contact/button
On my '72 T/T column I can get the horn to work by pressing anywhere on the horn contact plate with the horn button off. With the button in place pressure on one half of the button sounds the horn. Pressure on the other half has no result. Any ideas what is wrong here?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Race Director
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 18,739
Likes: 2,583
sounds like the horn button is hitting the steering wheel before depressing the contact plate. Does the button have the same clearance all around it's circumference. If not shim with a small washer under the contact plate on the closest holddown screw.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 6,001
Likes: 113
From: Saginaw Michigan
Use a small screwdriver blade and pry the horn cap off of the upper horn contact. (Just pulling on the horn cap itself can cause the cap to come apart and you will have even more problems.)
With the cap removed, now depress the part of the contact that the cap snaps into. Press in various sectors of the contact and determine if the horn blows in all sectors. It could be that the upper contact is corroded and certain areas inside the upper contact are "dead" electrically. You may have to order a new upper contact or rebuild the one you have. (There are kits with plastic "rivets" to hold the contact parts apart.)
If the contact seems to work, then determine if shimming the entire contact allows just a bit more travel so that the upper contact works properly.
Jim
With the cap removed, now depress the part of the contact that the cap snaps into. Press in various sectors of the contact and determine if the horn blows in all sectors. It could be that the upper contact is corroded and certain areas inside the upper contact are "dead" electrically. You may have to order a new upper contact or rebuild the one you have. (There are kits with plastic "rivets" to hold the contact parts apart.)
If the contact seems to work, then determine if shimming the entire contact allows just a bit more travel so that the upper contact works properly.
Jim
