Horn Button

[TJMack]

I'm stumped. My horn only goes "OOOOG" so I dove into it. I have determined that it is not getting a good ground thru the horn button. The horn works perfectly if I ground directly to the chassis.

I took the horn button out, carefully as someone suggested, and cleaned everything up to insure good conductivity. I connected a test lead at the ground terminal of the horn and touched the other end to the surface that the horn button contacts for ground and the horn worked perfectly.

I then put the horn button back in, without bending the tabs over to preserve them, and tried the horn. It was still just an "OOOOG"" That tells me the problem must be in the wire (or rod, I don't know which is in there) that goes from the top of the steering column to the bottom.

With an ohm meter I checked the continuity of the wire (or rod) and found zero ohms of resistance.

Why won't it pass enough current to blow the horn properly?

I recently bought the car so I don't know if someone has been in there and done something wrong.

Will I open a can of worms if I cut the end of the wire (rod) off to remake it?

[rotorwrench]

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The ground path in the steering column can get crusty. There was a very thin copper bushing that was placed in the top end of the steering shaft to aid in transfer of ground between the horn tube and the steering shaft. From there, the steering shaft runs in a bushing and has either a bearing or two at the worm to make contact with the ground of the case down there. The case is bolted to the frame so that is the final connection for the ground path. On 90+ year old cars, it's not unusual to have a lot of crust build up in all the transfer areas. Check the ohms resistance from the top of the steering shaft to the frame and see what that figure is. If resistance is high then some cleaning is in order.