Weak horn - Poor Steering column ground?

[DRMousseau]

Seems I have a poor ground on the steering column too. Noticed the new horn set, now barely bleeps rather than blaring!!! Grounded the wire to the column bracket bolt,... and jus fine. But to any place on the column,... jus a blip!! Guess some tightening or a good ground wire for  the column assy is in order. Seems strange. I do have a replacement horn/turn signal/hazard assembly. They sure make things cheap today,... so I just have it handy as a spare.

[sasktrini]

Wouldn't the horn go through a relay?  I'd bet the relay is flaky.

[DRMousseau]

The PO had the old horns wired to a toggle switch on the dash!!!

Couldn't figure WHAT that switch was for! But when I was trouble-shootin' the horns, I found the old ones rusted up nearly solid. I replaced 'em, then had to trace the circuit to find out why I wasn't gettin' no power and why they seemed wired-up so weird. That's when I found the purpose of the dash switch!!!

I had previously had the steering column head apart for a turn signal problem (which was also a grounding issue), and everything seemed fine. A little cleaning and lubing. Tested horn switch operation then, and was fine too. Silly me, I replaced the steering wheel into the EXACT same position I had marked in disassembly. Never thought to move it a couple teeth to straighten it up a bit!!

I wired the new horn set BACK to the steering column, and it worked fine once I got ground issues taken care of. So I know the switch assembly is jus fine,... but I DID BYPASS the relay!!! NOT a good thing, 'cause this creates a "hot" line thru the horns, up the column, and thru a lot of wire!!! This is jus askin' for a dash fire!!! The horn switch, is a switch to ground, and should activate the nearby horn relay on the fuse block. So I'm jus gonna have to rewire it all proper, AND ground the steering column good!!!

Never really use a horn much,... mostly to push deer from the edge of the roadway when I see 'em!!!

[DRMousseau]

Thought I'd post a followup here, because this is pretty important to safety and preventing those exciting "under dash fires" and smoke!!! By the appearance of a few things, the PO must have had some exciting times!!!


The PO must have had some problems with the horn. Not really sure, exactly what the problem WAS,... but the horns were wired "hot" to a toggle switch on the dash. All the horn contacts on the column head are fine. This includes the spring-loaded roller contact as well as the "touch" contacts that are necessary here. Perhaps he had a relay problem, because it was bypassed totally, and on inspection, it was badly corroded and not completely functional. The contacts of the column head horn-switch can not carry the straight amperage drawn by the horns very well. It may work momentarily, or maybe jus a click,.... and the wires may get pretty hot! Without a low draw relay, you run the risk of burning out those switch contacts, or worse yet, the wiring of the horn system!!!


Sooooo,.... I wired it up properly with a new relay in the circuit. Horn now works fine, dependable, and without concerns of hazards.