My horn makes my elbow wiggle!

[moparedtn]

Cruising downtown last night in the GTX, taking in the spontaneous
"demonstration" of patriotism caused by rumors of some manner of
protest supposedly being planned.
Turns out, not so much. The small group that had gotten the permit
turned tail and ran when they found out what was waiting on 'em.
Small town USA, gotta love it.

Anyways, whilst cruising slowly through, much celebrating, whooping and
hollering was taking place - some of it by me, admittedly.
That included honking of the GTX's horn, which has never really worked except
when the wheel is at about the 7 o'clock position - not anywhere else in the
rotation.
After a couple honks last night, though, if I got past that honking position in
the rotation, I felt the unmistakable bite of 12VDC - with some attitude behind it.
In my elbow.... which was propped on the windowsill, thus providing a perfect
ground to complete whatever circuit was occuring.

Guess I gotta tear into the wheel now? Seems like I remember once trying to
straighten all that up in there, polishing the copper contact surface and all that?

 

[Jerry Hall]

Think you have a little more than polishing to do in there and you can't even blow the horn with your elbow.

 

[Billccm]

It's more than 12V. It could be back EMF from the horn relay. I've seen it fixed with cleaning connections. In my case the horn button itself cured the problem.

 

[biomedtechguy]

It's more than 12V.

That's my thoughts as well, but in my case, it's the wife's GTO.
While doing other things under the front end of the GTO, I found the 2 horns (looks factory original) were disconnected, but the wires and plastic moulded terminals on them, and their relative position indicated that they were the horn wires, so I hooked them back up. Tried out the horn and while it may be a little tricky, it usually works. I thought I noticed a little jolt from more than one horn activation, but hey..it's her car, so I left it that way, for now...

 

[Billccm]

So your horn contact may be corroded or slightly making contact and you are pulsing the horn relay fast. It's just like a points and coil kind of thing. I measured 50V with my oscilloscope. Horn button not reproduced. Central Jersey Motors had NOS buttons.

 

[khryslerkid]

Glad to hear that you're still ***** at your age!

 

[RJRENTON]

It's more than 12V. It could be back EMF from the horn relay. I've seen it fixed with cleaning connections. In my case the horn button itself cured the problem.

I agree....12 volts will not be felt....as in touching both battery terminals. The issue must be the back EMF generated by the horn relay's solenoid coil or the actual operation of the horn (s).
BOB RENTON

 

[steve340]

I am not sure why this is happening on your car.
BUT - I would look in to it because the horn button on the steering wheel should only be an earth for the horn relay. Therefore a very small amperage required to pull in the relay coil.
It is not designed to carry 12 volts of any real amperage.
The horns take a lot of amperage to operate you really don't want that in your steering column.
Check your wiring and perhaps try another known good relay.

 

[moparedtn]

Well, THAT explains the 12V with attitude!
got done slapping up the replacement Chinese lamp on the side of the garage from Lowe's
(to replace the last POS that wanted to burn the joint down) and decided to pop off the horn button in the GTX for a quick look.

Let's see, there's this single wire with push terminals on both ends, connected to pins from underneath....
Nice round factory looking wire, too...except for over here, where it's been mashed flat!


Let's just move that over away from the horn ring mount....
hey, looky there, the horn works with the wheel in any position now!

False alarm y'all, sorry.

 

[steve340]

Cool glad you found the problem.

 

[toolmanmike]

Too bad you couldn't piss off the protesters so they would take a leak on your wheels. Just give them a little toot on the horn!

 

[moparedtn]

Too bad you couldn't piss off the protesters so they would take a leak on your wheels. Just give them a little toot on the horn!

Whew, I tell ya what though....
The GOB network wore me out Friday morning with calls to action; all manner of "rednecks, mount up!"
sorts of calls went out.
The scene downtown sort of reminded me of the line that formed in Blazing Saddles when Hedly Lamar was
hiring bad guys.
We had "official" representation" from the Oathkeepers, the 1%'ers, the regional biker gang.....
every one of them has been training or planning for something for the last decade and to be perfectly
honest, many are itching for a fight, so things could have gone sideways in a hurry - with not much
interference from the local constables.

The little scouting party disguised as "Care Net" might have thought they could sneak in here, but they
instead have a very different report to file with their overlords now....
"Those people down there are CRAZY! We might want to go somewhere else with protests..."