TheSamba.com :: View topic - 1960-61 horn assembly hell made simple.

Sun Jun 01, 2025 8:39 pm

deepseeman wrote: looks like I might've found the problem....

Wonder if that sleeve is hard or soft/flexible plastic or rubber?

If the latter mayhaps a bicycle inner tube might work.

Sun Jun 01, 2025 8:58 pm

Its currently brittle. Just ordered heat shrink as suggested earlier in this thread.

Sun Jun 01, 2025 11:32 pm

Berf wrote: I can supply any number of these isolators. The old ones are pretty fragile, mine was crumbling away.

I actually just put a post of this in a 3D printing forum on here. Guess I should’ve looked first. I would be very interested in several of the nylon bushings you made on a 3D printer. Let me know what you want for 5 of them and I’ll pay right away. That one you’ve made looks awesome. Nice work. I was wondering when someone was going to get around making some of these.

Thanks.

Tue Jun 03, 2025 7:26 pm

I'm getting my son to come back with a price for 10 of these insulators. My research shows these are needed from 8/59 to 7/61. I'll let you know a price tomorrow.

I seem to remember buying some heat shrink tubing from Home Depot to fix the 'axle' shaft black cylindrical sleeve.

Gary

Sun Jun 29, 2025 12:32 pm

I have an interesting problem. So, I have a good ground through the steering column, however my steering box to chassis ground is not there. Is there supposed to be a ground strap from the box to the chassis that I'm missing? I do have the ground wire through the column across the steering coupler like it should be.

Thank you

Sun Jun 29, 2025 12:43 pm

The steering box should provide ground through the gears and bearings. If the box is a bit loose it may only provide a ground when the wheel is held against a little road resistance. It is also possible to powder coat the steering box and/or the front beam and break the ground path that way.

Which horn wiring system are you using, the '60-'61 setup or the '62-'67 setup? Mixing parts between the systems can result in a horn that won't blow or a horn that won't stop blowing.

Sun Jun 29, 2025 12:52 pm

60-61.

I had the beam powder coated. I made a ground jumper to go from the box to a bumper bolt. Slowly tracking down the problem. Still no horn tho.

Sun Jun 29, 2025 3:14 pm

Since you are running the early system there is a quick test but it takes 2 people. One person has to hold the horn button down, the other has to take a wire and jumper from the steering shaft rag joint coupler to a good frame ground. The horn should sound.

Sun Jun 29, 2025 9:16 pm

JoelH wrote: I have an interesting problem. So, I have a good ground through the steering column, however my steering box to chassis ground is not there. Is there supposed to be a ground strap from the box to the chassis that I'm missing? I do have the ground wire through the column across the steering coupler like it should be.

Thank you
I just noticed the bolded part... You have a ground wire running down the steering column from the steering wheel to the steering box? That is not the '60-'61 setup. The '60-'61 system had a jumper from one rag joint bolt to another to provide an electrical connection around the rag joint.

One of the ways the horn will not work is if you use a later horn button assembly on a '60-'61 column. The reason is that the older horn setup has the steering shaft electrically isolated from the steering column tube.

Sun Jun 29, 2025 9:17 pm

Is there a good photo to go off of for all this that you've found? I can't seem to find anything to reference.

Sun Jun 29, 2025 9:21 pm

I will switch it so that it looks like this. That helps me.

Sun Jun 29, 2025 11:24 pm

JoelH wrote: Is there a good photo to go off of for all this that you've found? I can't seem to find anything to reference.
The top of page one of this thread has a good bunch of images showing the 2 year only steering wheel and horn assembly. You will notice that it doesn't have a wire connected to the horn button half ring. The images show the extensive insulation VW did to insulate the steering column from the steering shaft and steering wheel. Then the turn signal canceling ring was used as the contact point to connect the steering column tube to the steering shaft with pins inside the steering wheel.

If you are sporting a later steering wheel and horn button, that uses the wire down the steering column shaft, you can remove one insulating washer to defeat the insulation between the steering column and steering shaft, and then use a later '62-'67 steering wheel and horn button. You might be able to use that later horn button assembly with the '60-'61 steering wheel (I never tried).

Way back in the '80's my first car was a '60 Bug. I got experience with this infernal system from years ago! No wonder VW changed it after just 2 years, hopefully they fired that engineer too.