I have a question regarding the horn on my 1978 corvette. My horn is not functional, and has not been since I purchased the car.

1.) Where is the actual horn unit in the 1978? As I look in my service manual, it seems to say the horn is in the rear quarter panel behind the drivers door, although it somehow implies that would be the horn for the Ani Theft Alarm(?).

2.) Was the anti-theft alarm standard equipment in the 1978 corvette?

2.) In the Ecklers catalog, there is a '1969-82 horn repair kit' which includes horn contact, spacer, screws, and 2shims. They claim that this fixes 90% of horn failures.. Although, no where in my manuals can I see how to remove the horn button to even install these (if i decide to order this). Does anyone have any good documentation online (or advice) for the horn assemblies? Anyone had any success with this 'horn repair kit'?

Thanks!
Andrew.

 

There are two horns: a high pitch and a low pitch. They are behind the grilles, inboard of the headlight assemblies. I am not familiar with the repair kit.

 

I have a paper that will help diagnose if your problem is in the horns; in the relay; or in the steering column. Go to http://www.corvettefaq.com and look under Steering. Download the following: Horn Operation Diagnosis.

If the problem is in the steering wheel and horn parts, download the either of the two following papers:

Std Column 76-79 Strg Wheel & Horn Parts

Tilt & Telescoping 77-82 Strg Wheel and Horn Parts

 

Thanks for all the help getting this far! I have isolated the failure to be somewhere in the steering column, with help of the information that I got from http://www.corvettefaq.com.

I am not looking for someone who can tell me exactly how all the parts in the steering column "work together". Looking at diagrem "T&T Steering Wheel and Horn Parts" here is what I see:
(1) There is a spring loaded piece which is coming up to just under the horn contact assembly. (I can see it without pulling the wheel, after I remove the horn contact assembly.) I am pretty sure this is "#3.Eyelet" in the diagram.
(2) On the back of the horn contact assembly, "#7.Contact Asm Upr", there is a "foot" which appears like it is maybe (?) supposed to contact with "#3.Eyelet". However, I can see that thesee pieces do not quite come into contact. Is this a problem?

When I was playing around by pressing on this "#3.Eyelet", I was able to get my horn to sound. Can someone explain how exactly the horn contact assembly is supposed to produce the ground to the horn relay?

Thanks!
Andrew

 

You got to the root of your horn problem. That "foot" on the #7 Upper Contact Asm must touch the #3 eyelet in order for the horn to be able to work. They should be touching all the time. The Upper Contact Asm is actually a switch. What happens is when you press on the horn button, you depress a part of the Upper Contact Asm so that it completes the circuit back to the steering shaft.

In order to blow the horn, all you have to do is complete the horn relay circuit to ground. The steering shaft and the rest of the steering column are connected to the car and therefore are connected to ground. So all you have to do is complete the horn relay circuit to some part of the steering column hardware in order for the horn to blow.

It would seem that the #2 Spring is not pushing the Eyelet up against the leg on the Horn Contact. Or possibly the #4 Insulator is somehow holding the eyelet down so that it can't reach the leg. Is it possible that the leg on the Horn Contact is bent such that it doesn't extend down to meet the eyelet?

I see that Zip Products has the following parts:
ZSC-35 69-82 Horn Contact Spring Loaded (all columns Std or T&T) $7.00
SC-45 69-82 Horn Button Stand/Contact (T&T) $19.00

 

I am 99% certian, in that case, it is the #2 eyelet holding the spring up (and not a bent horn contact leg).

Do you have an familarity with what the difference is between
Zip "ZSC-35 69-82 Horn Contact Spring Loaded"
Ecklers "#20505: Horn Contact Brush" http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...2RJC50NE77P4C1
It sounds as if the Zip one might be a single part, pre-loaded with the spring, making it more reliable for the long term?

From the steering column diagram, apparently I need to pull the wheel to replace this part? How difficult is it to pull the wheel and the hub?

Finally, when removing the horn cap the retainer/emblem/cap became seperated. The retainer doesn't like to make a secure connection to the cap and often falls off when put back on the wheel. How were these connected from the factory, i see old glue between the retainer and emblem. It appears if a little super glue might put it all together? It does not appear that these three are sold as a "pre-fastened set".

Thanks! :yesnod:
Andrew

 

I assume that you have a T&T steering column.

As near as I can tell, the Zip and Ecklers parts should be the same. I doubt that the Zip parts are in a cartridge.

Yes, you need to pull the steering wheel and the hub. The steering wheel can be detached by removing six phillips screws that attach it to the hub. You will require a puller to remove the hub. You can sometimes borrow a tool like that from AUTOZONE.

If you go to http://www.corvettefaq.com and download Tilt & Telescoping Column 69-82 Disassembly & Repair Paper #1. Pages 2 and 3 describe removing the steering wheel, horn parts, and hub. Pages 6 and 7 will help you to reassemble the parts.

Unfortunately, you just found one of the weak service points in your steering system. The fact that there was glue where the emblem and retainer attached to the cap indicates that the previous owner (or Bubba) already broke the production staking joints that held them together.

The cap has three stands that pass through holes in the emblem and retainer. The ends of the stands were then spun over or deformed to hold all three parts together. The cap assembly then snapped into the upper contact assembly to hold it in place. So every time you go to service the steering column, you must begin by removing the cap assembly. When you attempt to pry the cap assembly off of the upper contact assembly, you put stress on the staked connection. A lot of times the staked joints are the weakest link.

You can try to spin or peen over any material that might be left on the ends of the stands. Or you might try gluing all the parts together with some JB Weld.