Horn push assembly

[LeffeBrune]

Ian currently on the road in France. All good, except that the horn stopped working (again). I checked the fuse and it is ok. I could not detect any click on the relay, although I am not sure I correctly located the relay. I wanted to check the horn push assembly but don’t know how to access/open it. Do you have to take off the steering wheel (i.e., loosen the 6 nuts behind the wheel)?

Thanks.

[Heuer]

You need to loosen three screws on the steering wheel hub which hold the horn push in place They are located just behind the spokes and will either be slotted screws (original) or Allen screws (modern replacements). Watch out as there is a spring in there which may jump out. Test is to earth the centre brass rod and horn should work. However you can't do much else without removing the steering column so best leave it until you get home. As my high performance driving instructor used to tell me "horn is there to announce, never to admonish"!

However if you can get your hands on one of these then your passenger can join in the fun:
http://amzn.eu/9yKCMJ3

Sports shops should have them as they are beloved by football supporters.

[cactusman]

The relay is on the near side (exhaust side) very near the battery and solenoid. As David says if it is not the relay, fuses or the button then it is probably the wiper contact within the column. Might be worth just checking the wires under the column as I think the wire from the wiper on the column joins the loom with a bullet connector....Might have fallen off. Look for a purple wire I think.....

[LeffeBrune]

Thanks. I will check the wiper contact. I also thought that the relay was near the battery (it was the only part that I found that resembled the design of the relay that I found on the SG Barrat side). It did not make a click though when I pushed the horn button.

[Heuer]

This is what it looks like:




Suggest you dismantle the shaft and give everything a good clean. Basically the white ring clip sits over the shaft where the hole is. The small brass nipple fits into the hole, the spring goes on top and the brass collar holds everything in place. When the long thin inner brass rod is in place the nipple is in permanent contact with it regardless of rotation. The copper contact completes the circuit.

The original contacts were beryllium copper which is a good spring material. The new ones are regular copper, which is not. The BeCu will stay in contact, regular copper will relax to wherever it's held and not spring back. Hutsons sell ta repair kit if you need it. This is the repro copper contact to be wary of so try and reuse the original:

[64OTS]

Relating to the horn push, my car was missing this when I got it. There is, however, a thick alloy ring inside the steering wheel surround which may be secured by the three small screws. I say 'may be' because after drilling them out, this alloy ring does not move, although I have not put undue pressure on it so far. Could anyone confirm (or otherwise) that this was part of the original horn push assembly and so I shouldn't be too concerned about its removal? Thanks.