BE horn never worked. Now it won't shut up

[livinginthepast]

So, I'm mucking around in the garage trying to find small BE projects to tackle. Leaving the Tachs Gone Wild issue behind for now, I decided to seek out something new to frustrate me...

The horn hasn't worked since who knows when - When I bought it, both wires had been disconnected from the horn.

So today, I replace the fuse (which was burnt) and connected the wires to the horn - HONK! Now the damned thing won't shut off.

Is this a relay issue?

Thx!

 

[RickB]

Hi Bill,

Do you have the stock wheel in there, or some aftermarket?

 

[dklawson]

The common Lucas wiring of the time was to supply power directly to one side of the horn(s) with the second horn terminal going off via a wire (purple/black?) to the steering column. The wire would be attached to a slip ring. A brush would run against the slip ring with its far side connected to the horn button. When the button is pushed, the horn button completes a ground path via the steering column.

Since your horn works, you know it's got power. It appears that you have a short circuit somewhere along the purple black wire or in the horn button itself.

Once you locate the horn problem you may wish to consider adding a horn relay as was on later cars. If nothing else, it protects the wiring in the harness and it can allow the horn to work even when the contacts in the slip ring or horn button become dirty.

 

[jlaird]

What relay, lol. Is a dead ground issue.

 

[livinginthepast]

Hi Bill,

Do you have the stock wheel in there, or some aftermarket?

Hey there - stock set up. Although my horn button pops out without warning! (yet another thing to address)

 

[livinginthepast]

What relay, lol. Is a dead ground issue.

Yeah, it occurred to my after posting that a horn relay was not to be found!

 

[livinginthepast]

The common Lucas wiring of the time was to supply power directly to one side of the horn(s) with the second horn terminal going off via a wire (purple/black?) to the steering column. The wire would be attached to a slip ring. A brush would run against the slip ring with its far side connected to the horn button. When the button is pushed, the horn button completes a ground path via the steering column.

Since your horn works, you know it's got power. It appears that you have a short circuit somewhere along the purple black wire or in the horn button itself.

Thanks! I try chasing it down!

 

[RickB]

Hi Bill,

Do you have the stock wheel in there, or some aftermarket?

Hey there - stock set up. Although my horn button pops out without warning! (yet another thing to address)

Heh - I had that problem as well. I put in a piece of double sided sticky tape and for now problem solved. (one small step for man...)

Now under your steering wheel there's a brass contact ring and attached to that is a wire. That supplies ground to the horn, so I think I'd try disconnecting that wire under the dash and see if the horn still blows. Then cut the problem in half, your horn is getting ground from somewhere and there's only a few feet of wire between the dash and the front of the car, right?

 

[DrEntropy]

YUP... A victim of "unintentional grounding" somewhere in the horn push or the wiring to the horn it should (as Doug indicates) be a purple wire with a black tracer that's the problem.

 

[Sarastro]

Horn button that won't stay in is a classic problem. There should be clips that have points that dig into the steering wheel to hold it in, but those clips are often lost or just don't hold. In my case, they dug trenches into the steering wheel after being in and out so much. I just filled in the suckers with epoxy, and now it holds. For the moment, at least.

 

[Guest]

If the horn "found" ground through the mounting bracket it'll do it too.

 

[jvandyke]

my horn suddenly went off while parked one day, burned it out, never did find out what happened, it was fused and on relays too, not very helpful am I?

 

[JPSmit]

When I bought it, both wires had been disconnected from the horn.

Hmmmm three guesses why they were disconnected in the first place? and the forst two don't count Sounds like you inherited someone else's problem - or at least someone else's solution