The horn no longer works. It apprears the air bag will have to be removed to look at the contact plates. Can someone give a general instruction on deactiving the air bag. In earlier times the horn would work if I spun the wheel to a certain position and then not. Now it never works. Any infomation will help.
Max
please email me to mnolivares@aol.com or on this site whichever you wish.

 

On my '95 (your year may be different), disconnect the battery and then pull the airbag fuse from the right hand dash fuse panel.
The airbag actually comes off kind of easy. There are 4 T30 torx screws behind the wheel. I use a 1/4 inch drive torx with an extension and a swivel joint to get around the turn signal stalk and ignition switch. Once those screws are off, the airbag will come off, but don't yank it to far because there is a yellow wired connector that you'll have to disconnect.
Inside the wheel are 2 plastic contacts for horn switches. The red wire is spring loaded; to remove it, push it in and give it a quarter turn and it will come out.

 

fixed my 91 after several attempts. what year?

 

Before you try pulling everything apart. Try to engage the steering lock after you take out the key. With the steering lock engaged, wiggle the steering around alittle side to side.

Then start the car and see if the horn works again. My horn started failing and I noticed I got it back to work again by doing this. Probably contacts somewhere getting old or a little miss contact somewhere.

 

Hi,
XR, thanks for your input. I will try that and let you know if it does anything.

Hi,
Stoydido, and thank you also for your response, my car is the same year as yours 1991. Maybe you can guide me.

Hi,
Analog Kid, I will try your instruction and see what happens.

 

The horn switches get old and brittle and eventually break, but they are very easy to replace. Here is what they look like. Google the part number on the box to find the best price. I think I paid $25-$30 bucks.

 

first, does horn not work or does button not work?

you can check relay by unplugging horns at the horn, and pressing thumb buttons, you will hear the horn relay every time, up under the glove box.

if relay works, and horn sometimes works, fuse (2) are ok.

you can pry the thumss off carefully with a putty knife, to clear tabs under. the contacts may have come out of their picture frames, and I put some invisible tape across them to secure.
that semed to cure my intermittent problem, but it returned.

loosened the airbag, leaving it attached with yellow wire (used a T27 for 2 screws.) the blk wire that disappears into steering column was loose. it has the butt connector that grounds the buttons to teh pin, which you will see inside.
could not secure the terminal/spring, so pressed the plastic retainer, a ps of plastic tube, into the recess, then wedged a plastic screw anchor, into the opening to secure the tube. so far, hundred attempts or more, it works fine. even bumping softly with edge of the hand.

you will wonder why GM did not simply use a spade/flag terminal rather than the terminal/spring design. after all the grounding is accomplished with the thumbs: the spring simply secures the connection all the time.

 

Thank you for sharing this information. It will help if I end up having to replace them.
Max

 

Stoydido,
This will really help, I will try your suggestions and see what happens.
Max