TheSamba.com :: View topic - Horn wiring on a 68 (steering column side..)

Tue May 01, 2012 1:06 pm

I know this has been cover a million times before but my 68 horn wiring is driving me crazy, just can't figure it out! should I have a wire in the centre of the shaft? the only wire I have comes out of the column but not on the inside.. this appears to be grounded somehow. both jumpers down on the coupling are there and tested fine to ground. I have an original steering wheel with all metal horn push but this is where I'm struggling, how does negative get from this plate to the brown wire I have under the dashboard?

Mark.

Tue May 01, 2012 2:34 pm

Hey Mark, I just went through this and think 68 and 69 are the same here. BerT3's 68 looks the same as my 69 (no brass wipers on turn switch), so that's why I'm thinking this. Sounds like you need to add a ground wire through the column.

The brown wire that is coming out of your steering column is soldered to a tab on the steering support bearing. That bearing has plastic insulators around it that prevent a current path between the column and the column housing.

Now, there are two wires to/from the horn, brown and black/yellow. The brown wire will be in the harness and go from the horn to up under your dash. Depending on the harness the black/yellow wire might be in the harness (ISP and 67 down), or attached to the three way connector that goes to the brake switches, those wires are black/red. If the black/yellow wire is in the harness, just attach it to the same fused connection as the black/red going to the brake switches. If not, the horn will get its 12v from the 3-way connector in your front trunk that has black/red wires.

So now you have 12v going from the fusebox directly to black/yellow, or indirectly from black/red, to the horn.

The circuit continues through the other side of the horn (brown wire), through the harness, and connects to the brown bearing wire. Make sure you get the right brown wire as the turn signal lever also has a brown ground wire that ties in with the gauges. This makes the steering column hot and at 12v potential but isolated from the column by the plastic sleeves. But, it's not grounded yet.

The ground comes from the top left bolt on the frame/beam mount through a jumper wire to a bolt on the steering box cover. A brown wire coming through the column then attaches to the bottom side of of one of the steering coupler bolts on the steering box side. So the ground path is frame to steering box to wire in column.

I didn't put on a stock wheel, but from what I remember there is a tab or screw on the horn ring that the ground wire goes to. When you bolt the wheel to the column you're making the hot path to the wheel. So when you press the chrome ring with the ground wire attached to it, it will complete the circuit through the contact ring.

Maybe someone can clarify what the contact ring touches (just the inside of the wheel?).

Hope this makes sense. Other years are different in that the column housing is isolated differently. It sure is nice to have a working horn. My Fastback had a toggle switch to the horn when I got it. :roll:

Tue May 01, 2012 2:49 pm

thanks Brent! I do have the bearing wire so this needs to connect to brown horn wire behind dash, cool! so I need to sort a wire straight up the centre of column for horn push, this will be fun! any ideas how it is attached?

rest of circuit is good only trouble I'm having now is this missing centre wire..

that other brown wire on turn signal you mention, does this attach to just the warning light cluster? I notice it has a small black wire coming out the centre that is ground for 1/2 of the warning lights..

getting there 8)

Tue May 01, 2012 4:49 pm

Mark Shutt wrote: thanks Brent! I do have the bearing wire so this needs to connect to brown horn wire behind dash, cool! so I need to sort a wire straight up the centre of column for horn push, this will be fun! any ideas how it is attached?

rest of circuit is good only trouble I'm having now is this missing centre wire..

that other brown wire on turn signal you mention, does this attach to just the warning light cluster? I notice it has a small black wire coming out the centre that is ground for 1/2 of the warning lights..

getting there 8)

Once the brown wire through the column is grounded through steering box to the frame, the other end just attaches to the 4th screw (or maybe it's a tab) on the horn ring <someone else please confirm this>.

Yes, brown from turn signal lever to ground on fuel cluster gauge. Looking at the diagram, the black one goes to the fusebox.

BTW, the K1 and K4 parking and headlight indicator lights on the diagram did not match up with my fuel gauge, they were reversed.

And don't click in the fuel gauge until you're done. If you have to go back and change a light bulb it makes it a real PITA. :oops:

Wed May 02, 2012 10:48 am

still fighting with this.. I re soldered the brown wire on the bearing but this isn't isolated from ground in any situation, if I hook this up to horn ground the horn will sound permanently :lol:

I have no idea how to get a wire down the centre of the shaft, I'm basically "shafted" :lol:

I think I may have a later column fitted as the ignition switch and barrel are 71 on but the turn signal switch is correct for 68/69.

Wed May 02, 2012 5:00 pm

Mark Shutt wrote: still fighting with this.. I re soldered the brown wire on the bearing but this isn't isolated from ground in any situation, if I hook this up to horn ground the horn will sound permanently :lol:

I have no idea how to get a wire down the centre of the shaft, I'm basically "shafted" :lol:

I think I may have a later column fitted as the ignition switch and barrel are 71 on but the turn signal switch is correct for 68/69.

Your bearing has the plastic housing pieces around it right? The isolation from ground is at the contact ring. When you press the horn ring it grounds.

Just push the wire through the center column, it will go right through.

The later columns are still mounted the same way, Bobnotch confirmed this in my thread.

Wed May 02, 2012 10:05 pm

yes I have the plastic pieces on both sides of the bearing but on the inner side the the plastic sleeve has metal contacts which touch the shaft, should this bearing be totally isolated from anything? if so then I need a new bearing..

Wed May 02, 2012 10:16 pm

Mark Shutt wrote: yes I have the plastic pieces on both sides of the bearing but on the inner side the the plastic sleeve has metal contacts which touch the shaft, should this bearing be totally isolated from anything? if so then I need a new bearing..

You've got it right then. The bearing makes the steering column 'hot'. It's supposed to put the column at 12v through those contacts on the inner sleeve. The solid plastic outer sleeves insulate the column from the housing.

Now your wheel will also be hot when you bolt it to the column. The ground wire running through the center of the column will ground it to the frame when you press the horn ring/button.

Wed May 02, 2012 10:23 pm

Brent wrote: You've got it right then. The bearing makes the steering column 'hot'. It's supposed to put the column at 12v through those contacts on the inner sleeve. The solid plastic outer sleeves insulate the column from the housing.

Now your wheel will also be hot when you bolt it to the column. The ground wire running through the center of the column will ground it to the frame when you press the horn ring/button.

this is the bit I just don't get, if the column is hot (and grounded) then iwhen I hook that brown wire up to the horn feed under the dash then my horn will sound?

thanks for being patience with me so far!

Wed May 02, 2012 10:34 pm

Mark Shutt wrote: Brent wrote: You've got it right then. The bearing makes the steering column 'hot'. It's supposed to put the column at 12v through those contacts on the inner sleeve. The solid plastic outer sleeves insulate the column from the housing.

Now your wheel will also be hot when you bolt it to the column. The ground wire running through the center of the column will ground it to the frame when you press the horn ring/button.

this is the bit I just don't get, if the column is hot (and grounded) then iwhen I hook that brown wire up to the horn feed under the dash then my horn will sound?

thanks for being patience with me so far!

The column is not grounded until you press the ring and close the contact between the hot column and ground wire to the frame (through the column).

I took those parts off my wheel and mailed them away... but, I think when you press the horn ring (which is grounded), it pushes the contact ring to the inside of the hot wheel by the splines which completes the circuit.

It may seem a bass-ackward way of wiring it, but it works without any rubbing contacts to wear out.

Wed May 02, 2012 10:40 pm

my problem is in the column then as this is definitely grounded! I can't see how it cannot be as it's grounded through the 2 "jumper" wires on the steering box/coupling.

I still don't know how the centre wire connects to the inner shaft or how to get one in there..

think I need to just find a complete working column with wiring and go from there..

Wed May 02, 2012 10:52 pm

Mark Shutt wrote: my problem is in the column then as this is definitely grounded! I can't see how it cannot be as it's grounded through the 2 "jumper" wires on the steering box/coupling.

I still don't know how the centre wire connects to the inner shaft or how to get one in there..

think I need to just find a complete working column with wiring and go from there..

There's two halves between the rubber coupler that is between the steering box and column. The ground wire that goes to steering box/jumper wire/frame goes to the half that is grounded. The other half is hot through the bearing-steering column-end piece that connects to rubber coupler.

Some setups use a jumper between the two halves that are 90* opposed on either side of the rubber coupling. You don't need this, just route the wire through the column to the steering box side half.

Make sense?

Wed May 02, 2012 10:55 pm

Mark Shutt wrote: it's grounded through the 2 "jumper" wires on the steering box/coupling.

Take off the jumper between the two pieces on either side of the coupler and run the ground wire to the bottom/steering box side only.

Like this, no ground strap:

Wed May 02, 2012 11:01 pm

this is a good picture of how mine is at the moment, you can see the rubber coupling wire is connected to the crumple tube thus making the shaft "hot" ..and giving me a headache!

PS- I have since grounded the steering box to body.

I found this image that explains a few things too, my question is how do I get a wire up the shaft from the beam end of the shaft, I can't see a hole in it! I'm off to work in 10mins but when I get back the shaft is coming out!!

Wed May 02, 2012 11:12 pm

The wire just goes into the cage and right up the column.

Here I have the 'column wire' going to ground with no jumper between the coupler. It's on the other side of the bolt, but same difference.

Wed May 02, 2012 11:15 pm

this makes 100% sense! from memory I don't have a hole under the crumple tube but I could be wrong and can always drill one.

Thanks Brent :D

Wed May 02, 2012 11:18 pm

Mark Shutt wrote: this makes 100% sense! from memory I don't have a hole under the crumple tube but I could be wrong and can always drill one.

Thanks Brent :D

Dude, I just went through all this a week or so ago with Tram and Bob. It's so satisfying to hear your first <Meep!> when you hit the horn.

The hole will be there in the column.

Wed May 02, 2012 11:36 pm

Just had a quick peek before I shot off to work and there is a hole!

I can have a nice shift at work today now without thinking of this problem! I'll be back on it this evening with enthusiasm.

Mark.

Thu May 03, 2012 12:22 pm

Hey, I got this sucker licked! and the horn push works fine too 8)

I now have more wiring woes ahead of me, I tested each circuit before I wired it up and now it's all together with fuses in I have strange things happening.. as soon as I hook power up the turn signal relay energizes and the parking light comes on (goes off when I pull the dip switch out).

more headaches ahead!!