Horn blows when turning wheel

[David H.]

My horn blows when I turn my steering wheel to a certain spot. I have determined it is caused when moving the inner shaft up or down in the new bearing I installed. I have removed the wheel down to the bearing and it still does it when moving the inner shaft. New signal switch, new bearing. any thoughts?

[Richard M.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

David,

It seems like the wire inside the column is rubbing on the shaft. The insulation of the wire may be worn off, or the area where the wire is soldered to the bearing outer ring is loose. Also check to be sure that the wire is not pinched where it gets clamped under the column, where the directional wires pass through.......where that odd shaped curved cover is under the column.

Rich

[Edward J.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

David,the wire must be bare and hitting metal somewhere on the shaft.

[David H.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

I agree, but the horn wire and bearing as well as the signal switch is all new wiring. I can move all the wires freely up and down inside the column.I'll have to take it all back out I suppose.

[Mike M.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

drive the bearing housing(the black rubber with copper/brass piece) towards the rear of the car( ie, move it slightly out of the mast jacket) about 1/16" and see if it still mis-behaves.mike

[David H.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

I removed everything back to square one. All the wiring is fine. When I removed the bearing housing the steering shaft shifted back to the left quite a bit. Then I remembered something from another post that said leave the steering box loose when installing the steering shaft. So I went back and loosened the steering box from the frame. The horn stopped blowing. One by one I put things back together. It seems better now. Looks like I need some shims behind the steering box in order to keep it over to the drivers side where it belongs. Apparently it was being forced to the passengers side enough to short it out on the housing. Does that make sense?

[Bruce B.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

Doesn't sound reasonable to me, but if you need the column shifted slightly put shims between the steering box and the frame.

[Erich C.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

Look at page B124 ( section 9 sheet 2.00 ) in the assy. manual. It shows " 3711834 SHIM AS REQUIRED ". The shim is placed between the frame and the spacer.

[David H.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

Thanks Erich, I see that now. I don't recall finding any shims when I took it apart, but I could be wrong.

[Tim E.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

David - The way the horn works is when you press the horn button, you actually ground (and therefore complete) the circuit to the horn relay and the horn blows. The "hot" side of the circuit (the + side) is constant to the relay, not to the horn ring. Anything else inside the steering wheel hub that accidentally grounds the horn ring (like movement of the steering shaft which is continuously grounded to the frame of the car) will cause the horn to blow.

The spring loaded plunger rides on a brass looking ring on the steering wheel edge of the steering column. I would suggest looking closely to see if all the plastic insulators are in place and in good shape, that the steering wheel shaft is not touching the brass ring or causing the bearing spring to touch it, and that no other metal surfaces are grounding the horn ring.

Since the spring below the steering wheel is what secures the upper shaft bearing, I've found you can ensure it is held securely by loosening the shaft where it enters the rag joint (in the engine compartment at the steering box) and move the shaft up to tighten or down to loosen. If the spring does not hold the bearing snug, you will get excess play in the shaft and the brass ring wobbles around.

Hope that gives you some ideas....Tim

[David H.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

Thanks Tim, I will recheck all of this as you suggest. Great description of how it all works.

[Bruce B.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

David - The way the horn works is when you press the horn button, you actually ground (and therefore complete) the circuit to the horn relay and the horn blows. The "hot" side of the circuit (the + side) is constant to the relay, not to the horn ring. Anything else inside the steering wheel hub that accidentally grounds the horn ring (like movement of the steering shaft which is continuously grounded to the frame of the car) will cause the horn to blow.

The spring loaded plunger rides on a brass looking ring on the steering wheel edge of the steering column. I would suggest looking closely to see if all the plastic insulators are in place and in good shape, that the steering wheel shaft is not touching the brass ring or causing the bearing spring to touch it, and that no other metal surfaces are grounding the horn ring.

Since the spring below the steering wheel is what secures the upper shaft bearing, I've found you can ensure it is held securely by loosening the shaft where it enters the rag joint (in the engine compartment at the steering box) and move the shaft up to tighten or down to loosen. If the spring does not hold the bearing snug, you will get excess play in the shaft and the brass ring wobbles around.

Hope that gives you some ideas....Tim

Tim,
The rag joint was not used until 1963.
Up through 1962 the steering shaft went right into the steering box.
The worm gear is pressed onto the shaft.

[David H.]

Re: Horn blows when turning wheel

I think I have solved this issue. I'm pretty ticked off at Paragon tho. I eliminated everything back to the shaft bearing at the top of the column and by pushing up or down on the shaft I could make the horn blow. I tried pulling the bearing out of the housing just a little but nothing seemed to help, so I took the brand new bearing and wire off and put my 50 year old original back in its place. I could not replicate the problem so I put everything back together and guess what? It works perfectly with the old one. Go figure! Some of these reproduction parts suck.