RPMS Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Howdy, gents. I've been refurbishing my steering wheel, and now that it's all pretty and clean, I can't get the horn to work. It's always been hit or miss, and now it's missing 100%. I took a look at how the steering wheel was constructed, and I'm confused. The metal ring on the back of the steering wheel, the one that makes contact with the wire leading to the horn relay, has no electrical connection with the rest of the steering wheel. It sits inside a plastic insulator, isolating it. The way I see it, when the horn button is pushed in, power should flow through the steering column terminal, then through the conductive ring on the back of the steering wheel, then through the horn button contact, the horn button itself, and then it should ground out through the steering shaft, completing the circuit and sounding the horn. But there's a broken link in that chain - there's nothing to conduct electricity from the conductive ring to the horn button contact. Am I missing a spring or something? Thanks for any info you can give. Maybe somone can take apart an old wheel for me and tell me what's going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest De Schmaydee Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 ...'magine the ring is connected to the body of the steering wheel (and it gets its ground from being bolted to the steering column.) i know on my zx the big ceramic assy that holds thew blinker switch/horn/etc will slide up and down on the column....to a point where the horn contact will not touch the ring.... ...s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMS Posted October 6, 2003 Author Share Posted October 6, 2003 That's the problem, though. There's nothing connecting the ring to the body of the wheel. It's insulated. Any ideas what's wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 There should be a brass lever looking thing which is bent out so that it touches the copper ring on the steering wheel. Grease the copper ring, and bend the lever thing out so that it touches. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spotfitz Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Scott, I have uploaded a pic of the turn signal switch assembly. The #1 arrow is pointing to the little lever that touches the back of the steering wheel. The #2 arrow is pointing to the little "nubber"(for lack of a better word) that protrudes out of the side that rests against the steering shaft. The nubber must be in it's receiver nitch for everything to bolt up properly. This is usually easy to determine. If turn signal switch and head light switch come completely together above and below the shaft when screwing them together, your in the receiver nitch. The lever(#1) needs to be greased and touching the metal ring on the back of the steering wheel. You may have to lightly bend the lever or tighten your steering wheel more for it to touch. Pressing the horn pad just connects ground, completing the circuit between power to horn to ground(switch). Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMS Posted October 7, 2003 Author Share Posted October 7, 2003 Thanks for the info, guys! I went out to the car and looked, and it appears that the "finger" is making good contact with the rear ring on the wheel. I got to looking at the wheel itself, and took it apart to see if there was something I was missing. There was! With the front contact ring removed from the wheel, I could see a hole that passed all the way through the wheel, and blocked by the rear contact ring. The perfect place for a spring to connect the front and rear contact rings! Did I have a spring? No. Can I make a spring? Yes. So I wound up a low tension spring, inserted it, and reassembled the wheel. I jammed the wheel back on the shaft, and sure enough, the horn started blaring away. (By the way - this is at 11:00 pm, and I'm sure my next door neighbor is about to shoot me.) I pulled the wheel back off, disassembled it AGAIN, and this time I put a piece of plastic tubing around the spring so it couldn't short out against the steering wheel frame. I disconnected the horns, reinstalled the wheel, and voila! Every time I push the horn button, I hear the relay click! So that's the story, gents. The rear contact ring is connected to the front contact via a spring that I've apparently been missing for these past four years! Thanks for all your help, and thanks especially for taking the trouble to post pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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