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

Sun Sep 08, 2013 2:08 pm

I encountered a similar problem when I put my horn back together on my 1960 after restoring the steering wheel and rechroming the horn ring. When I reconnected the battery after the horn work, the horn was blowing very loud. The only way to stop it was to remove the battery cable.

I slightly loosened the 3 screws that hold the horn ring on. The screw that is in the 2 o'clock position I loosened a little more and that fixed the problem and it has been fine ever since. I know it says to fully tighten those screws but if I did the horn was on all the time. Was it the rechroming of the ring? Can't see why. I switched positions of the contact pins and springs and no difference.

Your problem might be different but give this try and see what happens.

Sun Sep 08, 2013 4:41 pm

Thanks y'all!

E&B, what is the flex disc?

Wayne, I considered doing just that, but remembered the instruction to tighten those ring mounting screws all the way. I will back them off a bit and see if that helps; that is what I am imagining- that the assembly is holding a pin captive just enough to keep current flowing.

Sun Sep 08, 2013 5:35 pm

Does the horn unit need to be insulated from the welded body mount? I saw a comment here to that effect, but can't seem to find clarification.

Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:10 pm

Rubber disc between steering box and steering shaft to reduce road noise to interior.

No, horn only needs power and ground wire to function.

Fri Sep 20, 2013 2:24 pm

Still have had no luck finding the necessary parts for my '60

can anyone help out?

Fri Sep 20, 2013 5:24 pm

You can post a "Wanted" ad in the classifieds.

Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:53 pm

Great thread. I have been accumulating steering/horn parts for my '60 for a few years including a '62-'63 set up just in case. Was lucky enough to find some NOS and close to mint used '60-'61 stuff. Just got the last piece of the steering wheel/column/horn puzzle the other day. I would have been lost without all your pics. Thanks.

Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:31 am

I have encountered an issue that I have not seen here yet. The horn will sound but it is weak. Low in volume. Any ideas?

Wed Jan 22, 2014 7:13 am

Did you rebuild the horn?

Is the horn lots louder when you short it to ground?

Did you solder the grounding tab on the steering column tube?

Wed Jan 22, 2014 8:29 am

I was having that problem with my '62 horn working intermittently loud & soft.One day someone pulls out while I'm doing 60mph.So I jam on the brakes,steer to shoulder,press the horn.No horn.What I did was install a relay.I got the idea from one of Glutamodos(Andys)posts.I also bought the relay from the same post.Easy hook up.Works every time now.For anyone still interested,this is how I did it if I remember right.On the relay 85 & 86 posts take the 2 wires from the horn.#30 gets its own power source #87 to horns pos.+ The horns other post gets grounded to body.If I missed anything feel free to correct.

Wed Jan 22, 2014 9:18 am

One thing I am finding confusing is the insulating sleeve on the top of the inner column. The column and the spring assembly are both grounded so what difference does it make they touch? Also, and this is what I find particularly confusing; if the column is hot, the bearing cup at the top would also be. So how does the inner column not short out against it?

Wed Jan 22, 2014 10:03 am

6T5 square wrote: I have encountered an issue that I have not seen here yet. The horn will sound but it is weak. Low in volume. Any ideas?

If you have full voltage at the horn, your problem is a bad or weak ground. My 67 had the same issue. I removed the column during a paint job. I then hooked everything back up and the horn was back to full strength. The only thing I did was really clean all the rust off the coupler where it slides onto the steering gear. I think it grounds through the gear. Cleaning that rust up cured my weak ground problem.

Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:23 pm

I am getting full voltage at the horn so I think I'll be checking my grounds as you suggested

thanks

Sun Apr 05, 2015 11:11 am

Restored my wife's '60 convertible about three years ago. The horn bits for lost and finally yesterday a friend of mine gave me the bits from another car so. I would be able to have a horn for the car. I had no clue how it all went together until I I found this post. Thanks!

Wed Apr 08, 2015 3:18 pm

thanks for your post helped me out big time!

Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:45 pm

This thread is still damned helpful. I just finished restoring my 1960 wheel and used this thread to figure out how to do it. This is one of the most helpful pieces of info out there and this site is awesome. I took a multi-crack steering wheel and ground out the cracks with a dremel and then filled them with the POR-15 putty which works over 6 other products I tried. The wheel I had for my '60 was hammered. Used smoke grey Krylon rattle can to paint it with and it looks like it's coated in glass.

Mon Aug 29, 2016 9:16 am

Wow...great thread. Will be needing this in the future. Thank you!

Tue Aug 30, 2016 12:26 pm

soupcups wrote: This thread is still damned helpful. I just finished restoring my 1960 wheel and used this thread to figure out how to do it. This is one of the most helpful pieces of info out there and this site is awesome. I took a multi-crack steering wheel and ground out the cracks with a dremel and then filled them with the POR-15 putty which works over 6 other products I tried. The wheel I had for my '60 was hammered. Used smoke grey Krylon rattle can to paint it with and it looks like it's coated in glass.

Wow that looks really great! Please let me know how that POR-15 holds up in the sun. I restored mine a couple of months ago and my painter used bondo to fill in about 5 different hairline cracks, then paint. Well the cracks are starting to show back up thru the paint. So bummed.

Tue Aug 30, 2016 1:21 pm

Thank you. I'll let you know for sure. It'll be a while before it's installed though. I've tried to loosen it by tweaking the wheel but it holds up. That stuff is awesome. Expensive though. Also, use the krylon paint over the rustoleum. Comes out like glass.

Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:18 pm

This thread is killer!

But... Horn activates briefly when turn signal is activated. It seems the turn signal switch is completing the circuit on the steering column. Isolated the switch off of the column with some electrical tape and it seemed to work as intended.

So, is paint on the column enough for this to be corrected?

Or do I have another issue?

Thanks!