Horns

[grnthng]

The prior owner of my car put the horn activator on a button on the dash board. You have to reach though the steering wheel to reach it. In the past this was not a problem because most people in California would start driving once the light turned green. They did not need any "extra encouragement". Now that everyone is too busy texting to drive well. I would like to get my,"extra encouragement", working more easily. Every shop I talk to wants to just move the button to an easier site to reach. I would like to return it to the steering wheel where it belongs. All the wires are in place as far Has I can see, is there something conman that goes wrong that I am not aware of, before I try to reconnect everything back together again. I saw one posting showing how wires lost connection. I can not understand why someone would move the activator off of the steering wheel unless something was wrong in the first place? are there too many questions?

[Gene Kisner]

Please, nobody tell this person how to fix his horn!

We have enough rude people in too big a hurry while behind the wheel.
If you are driving a THING you should be laid back and enjoying the time in your thing, doing your thing, and letting others do their thing.
A horn is an emergency device, not to be used to announce that you think your time and your "thing" is better than anybody else's "thing".
Slow down, look around, realize how lucky you are to be spending time in your THING doing your "thing", while others are trapped in their little isolated world inside a sealed tin can, listening to canned music rather than listening to their great German four banger and the sounds of the world around them.
While you are at it look at the pretty girls in the other cars at the stop light, they will be so interested in your Thing that they will roll their window down and talk to you about your "thing". Now that is a great reason to spend more time at the stop light. To hell with the inconsiderate, self important, individual blowing his horn because he is frustrated that the Beautiful Woman is ignoring him in his $80,000 spam can and talking to someone who knows the real value of time and driving.

Notice how I wrote this entire piece without cursing, or referring to the #*XX##&* horn blowers by any four letter words. [/b]

[JayC]

Since I rarely have the top or doors on, I just yell at people. You would be amazed at how that will get attention... or a canned air horn!

In all seriousness, if everything is there in terms of the column and steering wheel, it should be straight forward to reconnect horn. I think you need to make sure the jumper wire is on the column under the gas tank and that the ground wire is continuous up through the column. Finally, that all the contacts are good under the steering wheel cover.

I'm still troubleshooting mine

jay

[grnthng]

Gene Kisner, Sorry you got the wrong idea about how I use my horn. Never would lean on the horn . just a tap top awaken the teeter out of their trance.
Maybe your right and I should not get upset about the texters. Yet what should I do if one of them enters my lane while they are distracted? Maybe I could wave at them politely.
PLEASE LOOK AT THIS WEB SITE IF YOU THINK I OVER REACT ABOUT TEXTING.
http://www.donttextdrive.com/statistics/
I do mind looking at all of the wonderful people in the world. If someone is at a stop sign looking at a lovely person I would never honk, I would be to busy looking also. Even some who is busy adjusting the radio does not make me upset at a stop sign. just the head-down texter.

JayC I saw this posting I hope it helpful to you. Search this author and it will pop right up. djkeev

[Captain Spalding]

Gene, I've got to side with grnthng on this one. I live in Los Angeles where there are too many people and too many cars. The occasions when traffic is light enough to drive in the laid back way that you suggest are few. L.A. streets are burdened to the limit, and to get anywhere requires that drivers adopt the attitude of a professional. Cool, collected, efficient. But you know the old saying: At the front of every traffic jam is one inconsiderate moron. And one traffic jam can cascade into a bad commute for everyone.

This matter of stopping at a light and turning one's attention to one's phone has become epidemic. How long is one supposed to wait for one of these people after the light turns green? Therefore I suggest that it is reasonable, with a friendly tap of the horn, to remind fellow drivers of their duty to help keep things moving along.

[grnthng]

WHEN I SEE A THING
I HIT THE HORN, FLASH LIGHTS, WAVE, DROP MY JAW AND TRY TO KEEP MY CAR FROM WANTING TO MATE. I THINK THEY HAVE A LITTLE HERBIE IN THEM. AND THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE. MY CAR IS A COMMUTER AND PLEASURE CAR. SO I DO DRIVE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA A LOT. I HAVE NOTICED, THAT PEOPLE WHO TEXT AT THE LIGHT, RACE TO THE NEXT SIGN LIKE A BATS OUT OF HELL SO THEY CAN STOP AND START TEXTING AGAIN. CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THAT BEHAVIOR?

[mondshine]

In Manhattan, the first guy at the light blows his horn when the light turns green!

I'm glad my horn works well, but since I installed my daytime running lights module, I have much less need to use it.
I frequently notice eye contact with drivers who were about to carelessly pull out in front of me.

[grnthng]

mondshine

TO QUOTE AUSTIN POWERS"THAT IS ONE SEXY BEAST" MY grnthng IS HAS THE NATIONAL PARKS WOULD SAY, "IN AN ARRESTED STATE OF DECAY." ORIGINAL PAINT AND ALL. 80+ THOUSAND MILES AND LOVING IT SINCE 1980. YOURS IS VERY NICE AND THANKS FOR THE HELP WITH THE BRAKE LIGHTS.

[mondshine]

Thanks grn-
Painted in 1983, it looks a lot better from 30 feet than up close.

[[email protected]]

So getting back to fixing your horn?
There are contacts behind the horn button
Four of them if there rusty it won't work
When you press the horn button it completes the circuit
Via the following
There's a wire connecting the horn to the contact
Horn button to horn contact mounted in back of the steering wheel
If that's wore down it won't work
Horn contact to turn signal bi metal
If the turn signal wiring bi metal is wore thru it won't work
Turn signal contact uses the grounding in the steering column which jumps across the steering coupler
If that wire is broken it won't work
Then the horn also has to have a good ground at the bumper
So loosen the horn off the bumper and grind down the metal and reattach
While you have the horn off
Bench test it 12v to either side and ground to the other

Then check the rest of the list
I stock hella horns, horn contacts, horn buttons new or used,
And turn signal switches
Hope this helps
_________________
Michael Basso
http://www.thingparts.com
New and Used VW Thing Parts Free advice
CALL 518 630 0173

[JayC]

Ok, I may be thick (which wouldn't be the first time I have been told that), but if you have the horn button off (e.g. the big plastic plate over the steering wheel), what would you jump between to see if the horn is working? I have the ground wire coming up through the steering wheel, but I don't seem to get any signal?

Any insight would be appreciated.

jay

[sjbartnik]

The horn has power via the black/yellow wire all the time that the ignition is turned on. The horn, in stock configuration, DOES NOT ground to the bumper. If the horn did ground to the bumper, it would sound constantly whenever the key was turned on.

You can easily test the horn itself by turning on the ignition and connecting a jumper wire from the ground terminal on the horn (the one with the brown wire to it) and any chassis ground. If the horn itself is good the horn will sound at this point. If it does not sound, verify you have 12v on the black/yellow wire. If not, go trace that back and find out why not. If you do, horn itself is bad.

So if the horn sounds when you test it that way but does not sound when you push the horn button on the steering wheel, you have to trace out the ground circuit.

The brown wire from the horn runs into the car and up into the steering column along with the wires for the turn signal switch. There is a connector in line with the wire just before it enters the column, you can disconnect that and jump the horn end of that wire to a good ground which should make the horn sound. That tells you your brown wire is good up to that point. Hook it back up.

If you pop off the center cap of the steering wheel you will see a brown wire on a terminal that then runs down the hollow center of the steering column. That is not the same brown wire as the one from the horn. But when you push the button, you are connecting those brown wires together. The wire that runs down the center of the steering column jumps over the steering coupler and grounds to the steering gear box or somewhere in that vicinity. So use your meter to check continuity between that wire and ground. If you don't have it, find out why. Get under the front left wheel well and see where it comes out of the column, make sure it's not broken, make sure it's not corroded, make sure it's grounded.

If you still aren't getting love you probably need to pull the steering wheel and inspect the contacts in the turn signal switch. As mpb181 said, if the contact strips there are worn out or broken, the horn won't work.

You could go back to that inline connector just before the steering column, disconnect that, then jumper the horn end of that wire to the brown wire that goes down the center of the steering column. If that makes the horn sound, that tells you your problem is in between those two points - either the wire into the steering column, the contact strips on the turn signal switch, or the contacts on the horn button itself.
_________________
1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[germanbilly]

Also make sure that the jumper wire at the steering coupler jumps from one side to the other side of the rubber disc, Make sure it goes across to the steering box bolt from the steering shaft bolt. to complete the ground circuit. If it is on the steering haft bolt to the steering shaft bolt it does nothing.
GB

[Wildthings]

Adding a horn relay will improve the operation of the horn(s). With the stock design all the current for the horn(s) must pass through the contacts in the steering wheel, contacts which tend to be in anything but perfect condition. The relay will be on the supply (+) of the horn and the other horn contact will then be grounded in a suitable location.

[ALANSD]

My Thing has the aahhoogahh type horn. It sure gets attention and laughs. Kinda fun.

[sjbartnik]

[vw moses]

i ran a hot (fused) wire to one side of the horn terminal and the other to a silver push button switch screwed to body(neg.) all the way to the left of steering wheel----at least i don't reach thru steering wheel

i did have a person who wanted to hear a old vw horn sound once
a good easy acess horn is a good thing to have---use it well my friend!

_________________
Youtube@vw moses
73 thing-gone
66 beetle-gone
62 beetle-gone
57 beetle-gone
convertable-beetle-w/bugspray & screamer dist.(019) gone
"Where There's a Will There's a Way"
63 one of a kind beetle. 57 dash,double rear window--sweet!

[74 Thing]

How do you wire the relay in for the horn? Is it just to be sure you are getting a full 12v to the horn and not voltage drop?

[Wildthings]

[sjbartnik]