So I'm trying to assemble my horn and I'm having some issues. I'm not sure exactly what is going wrong, but I don't quite understand how it works even after looking at the diagrams. I have some pictures below. Basically, I can't figure out:

a) how the telescopic stuff doesn't interfere with the horn. When I rotate it, I don't see how it won't take out the spring.

b) Do you really just put that spring/plastic piece/small metal piece in that tube? I seems like it would just pop out, there's nothing holding it place?

c) How exactly do the horn button get pressed? It doesn't seem like there's any give, like there's no way to actually press the button.

Totally confused here. I would like to fix the horn but it doesn't seem like all the pieces add up, lol. I've tried looking at the diagrams and stuff, but that's part of the issue, it seems like I'm missing something.

 

I believe that once you adjust that telescopic dial you will be good on that. Looks like you need to take the horn contact stuff back out, remove the two screws holding the star bolt in, loosen the star bolt, turn the telescopic dial clockwise a bit, then tighten and secure the star bolt and put the screws in to hold it. You don't have to 'lean' on the star bolt when you tighten it.

As far as the spring and such, I am assuming you haven't put that in yet since I don't see it? If you have purchased a repair kit, I can't help with that, haven't installed one of those. But let's say it installs the plunger and spring. Then, on the back of the horn contact there is an 'L' that protrudes off of it. You might not have the right one, because what is suppose to happen is when you install this horn contact, that 'L' is supposed to press that spring and plunger down and maintain contact with it. The 'L' on your contact doesn't look like it will reach and also press the plunger down; could you possibly have a horn contact for a standard steering column?

And as far as the horn button seemingly not having enough movement to activate the horn, believe me, there isn't much movement but it doesn't take much. If you hold the horn contact up at eye level looking thru from the side, and push on one of the metal arcs and see what it does you'll understand: when that metal arch contacts the metal part below it, it causes the horn to blow.

 

See if these help (ignore the plastic bolts holding the horn button clip, the rivets on the replacement unit were loose and allowed the button to bounce around when going over bumps etc so I replaced them)




Really hard to see here but the stand-offs go into the column



Remember the tilt lock ring doesn't turn very far in between the standoffs, adjust the star screw to make it securely lock just before it hits one to the clockwise dir
M

 

Maybe that's my problem here, mine fully rotates about 1/3 of the wheel diameter. If it didn't rotate so far, it wouldn't be an issue. Thanks to both of you for replying, I think that will really help me in fixing this.

 

Ok, I started assembling it tonight, one thing I don't quite get is how far that plastic piece is supposed to insert into that hole with the spring and plunger? I push it till that midline hits the edge of the hole, but it doesn't stick at all...do I have to push it all the way in? How far to push it then? It seems really imprecise.

 

I'm maybe thinking of the wrong piece but the plastic spring loaded piece just gets pushed in by the rest of the horn pieces and the spring keeps it in contact with the tab on the backside of the center part. It is what electrically connects the fixed column to turning steering wheel.

Just line it up in the hole and press it in when you assemble the center part

Or are you on a different part?
M

Mine was in two pieces but there was a small plastic sleeve/cap thing that was supposed to keep the whole pin from popping out, it just wedged in flush with the metal around the hole, maybe that's the piece you have???

 

This tab should press that spring loaded pin into the column


M

 

Can't help you with the spring and plunger, I never tried to pull the one on my column out so not sure how all that works. What Mooser said makes perfect sense. Good pictures Mooser!

 

Pictures were a big help, thanks! I got it all back assembled, then found out that my horn still doesn't work, lol. So there's some other problem in the system. Manually trying to activate it via grounding it with a screwdriver did nothing. So now to go to the next stage of this.

 

Verify that the horn works.
Remove the terminal on the horn and apply 12 volts and see if the horn works.
If not check the ground for the horn by applying a ground wire to the horn body.

 

The ground wire was disconnected, does it just attached to the horn frame? I didn't see where it was actually supposed to connect. My car has double horns up front, somebody at some point must have added an extra horn. It appears like the horn is just attached to the frame, would the ground wire even do anything? Thanks

 

IIRC correctly there is a ground wire in the front harness that needs to be connected to that crossemember that the horn(s) are bolted to, without that I don't think that bar is grounded (damn plastic bodied cars...)
M

 

Grounded it, still no horn. No relay clicks either. If it's like anything else on this car, I would suspect:

The horn is bad, both of them
The relay is bad
The steering wheel button is bad (which I've fixed)

Everything I've fixed on this car seems like it has failed at several places, so the horn probably won't be any different, lol.

I'll have to work on testing the horn next.

 

Your relay is the old style and under the hood but it works the same way.




https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...GE5N2EzZGI2Mjc

 

Finally got my new relay in, tested the whole thing. There is continuity to the horn from the relay, and from the battery to the relay, but not from the horn button to relay. Guess I'm going to have to pull that apart some more if I want to figure out the issue.

 

Do you have continuity across the rag-joint on the column?
M

 

 

No, it appears like my button never gets out of the column unfortunately. I unplugged the harmonica wires there and I've got no signal between where the button is pressed and the loom.

I've got the wheel disassembled down to the hub, and it appears like my horn cancel cam isn't in great shape. Also, I have a spring there, and the diagrams I've seen don't show a spring there (I'm assuming that's just there to make the wheel push out).

I don't know how to remove the hub though, I've done a little reading and it appears I might need a special tool?

I keep going further and further down this rabbit hole, lol.

 

Check for continuity from "A" in Willcox's drawing to "G" on the steering column harmonica connection.If good then:

Then check the body harness from "G" to your horn relay.
If no continuity there jumper from one side of the RAG Joint to the other.

 

There's no continuity there unfortunately between 'A' of the upper diagram and 'G' of the wiring harness. I'm looking at the 'hole' in the steering wheel where the spring goes in, in the back of it how does that route to the black wire? It looks like there's just a spring there. I've attached a couple pictures.