Horn push not working

[drichards]

I have looked back at a previous discussion regarding the horns not working and wanted to understand if I am missing something. I have disconnected the bullet connector (purple black cable which runs to the relay) at the base of the steering column and temporarily earthed this and the horn works, whereas when it is fully connected the horn push does not activate the horns. Before I rush out and buy a new horn contact assembly I wondered if there is a simple fix. If my analysis is correct when the growler button is pushed the rod touches the contact assembly and creates an earth. In my case the Rod only depresses a few millimetres (is this sufficient) and I am wondering if it is not reaching the contact assembly. Alternatively the rod itself is not earthing properly even though it might be reaching the contact assembly. If the later my second question is how is the rod itself connected to an earth point in the first place?

[drichards]

I did some further testing today. If I connect a stand alone earth wire from the bodywork to the metal parts of the steering wheel and push the horn button it works, which suggests the horn button isn’t earthing. However I cannot fathom where the horn push should be earthed to.

[angelw]

drichards wrote:

I did some further testing today. If I connect a stand alone earth wire from the bodywork to the metal parts of the steering wheel and push the horn button it works, which suggests the horn button isn’t earthing. However I cannot fathom where the horn push should be earthed to.

,

It suggests that the Horn Button is working correctly, but that there is either a poor connection between the Steering Wheel and the Steering Column, or the Steering Column and the body of the car.

As a test, take your stand alone earth wire and connect it to a bare metal spot on the Outer Steering Column. If pressing the Horn Button now makes the Horn sound, then it shows that the poor connection is between the Steering Column and the body of the car. If no sound, then the poor connection is between the Steering Wheel and the Steering Column.

The centre rod of the assembly makes contact to earth via the Horn Button making contact with its end, that exits the steering wheel end of the inner steering column, which in turn, should have a path to earth via the Steering Column.

Another test is to disconnect the purple black cable which runs to the relay and touch it on a bar metal spot on the Outer Steering Column. If the horn sounds, it shows that the Steering Column is correctly grounded and that the path to earth issue is somewhere between the Steering Wheel and the Steering Column.

Regards,

Bill

[MarekH]

...However I cannot fathom where the horn push should be earthed to.

The horn push, when pressed, will contact the steering column. The steering column is bolted to the chassis. The chassis is connected to the battery negative. The horn push thus completes the earth side of the horn relay winding circuit via the brass connections to the relay's purple/black wire.

If you keep checking the separate joins between component legs for continuity from the chassis along the path to where the purple/black wire has taken over, then you'll eventually find your fault.

kind regards
Marek

[Kens63]

The earth connection for the horn is made via the inner steering column it has a sprung loaded contact that pushes onto the horn rod. I found that on my one the spring had broken which stopped the contact from being made. if you look at items No.17,18,19 and 20 in 'the diagram,

Hope this helps.

[drichards]

Apologies for slow reply!! On inspection I couldn’t see that the earth connection at item 28 was there! I had to dismantle the turn indicator lever as it wasn’t canceling on left turns. Bazaarly when I put everything back still with no earth at item 28b (I took the opportunity to pull the steering column out for inspection), the horn and the indicator lever are both working fine. So I let sleeping dogs lie!!