ghost in the machine/ gearbox and horn?

[jvandyke]

Okay, my horn brush has needed to be tweaked, recently worked on it again this week.
Coming home from work, it was hot near 90, I opted for the freeway, which I NEVER do just to get home on time, I come to the bottom of the on ramp to land square in the middle of a horrendous traffic jam. Takes about 40 minutes to crawl out of it, I do not overheat, in fact not even close, the electric fan kicks in and out and I stay at 185ish despite not even moving for several minutes at a stretch.
I stop for gas, take off and I'm stuck in 1st (super hot gearbox I guess) having no choice, I grap it with both hands and force it out, 2 3, 4 all work fine the rest of the 1 mile home.
Park car.
About 1.5 hours later my son calls to tell me the MG is blowing it's horn. It lasts about 3 minutes, begins to dim and dies off. Weird. I had him pull the horn push out just to be safe.
So, any thoughts on either of these "issues?"
I plan on investigating and taking the car for a brief run in about an hour.
Oh, BTW the plastic aftermarket hornpush inset was severly marred by son prying on wrong part. Bummer

 

[jvandyke]

Test drive was fine, gearbox was back to normal (needing attention). Horn doesn't work but no big deal. Still wonder what would set it off like that.
Shorted to ground somewhere, for a while. Car is actually running AWESOME and is TOO fun.

 

[jhorton3]

Odd that the horn would blow on it's own. Your gearbox problem is something I've had for a while. Two summers ago we had evening temps in the low 90s and I'd get locked out of changing gears. That was with 20w50 in the box. Switched over to 40w oil and it helped...some, but certainly not a cure all.

 

[jvandyke]

I've noticed the warmer the gearbox gets, the harder it shifts. I recently added a bit of Lucas Transimission Fix, 12oz or so is all I put in, otherwise it's 20w 50. Dead cold is when things move the best. Never had it lock me out entirely like that though, not cool, but then again, it didn't last so no big deal.
Maybe time to engineer an elaborate gearbox cooling system.....or not.

 

[jvandyke]

I can hear what I think is the relay clicking over when I hit the horn button. Wonder if the horn itself went bad.

 

[jhorton3]

Something could be shorting between the wiring leads on a horn, or maybe the wiring somewhere along the way is chaffed and grounding. How is the contact of the copper tab on the ring behind the steering wheel? If it's kinked really bad sometimes turning the wheel will disengage the tab causing the horn to blow.

 

[jvandyke]

I'll investigate some tonight. Odd thing is the car had been sitting for a good 1.5 hours before the horn suddenly kicked in. I think it was calling to me for another ride.