Hey guys, I need some help hooking up a horn, deal is, I'm going to put a 36 deluxe banjo wheel in my car, and want to use the factory horn button. Problem is, the steering shaft is hollow only down to the steering U joint . So the horn button is goanna turn with the wheel, ? Id appreciate any thoughts on how to set this up.. Cheers ...
All that happens in your column is that the horn button is the ground that completes the circuit for the horn relay. You will have a place where the wire exits and goes to the horn relay. The column is grounded and when the horn button is mashed it completes the circuit. There is a hot wire that connects to one side of the relay and when the circuit is complete it energizes a coil that in turn makes up the contacts in the relay and supplies hot to the horn. Some cars the horn is always hot and the contacts make up the ground to the horn. there that should be enough to confuse you for the next 20 minutes or so. Actually on the Pusher (and several other vehicles over the years) I used a hot button. A starter button wired into the horn like a switch.no relay at all. it is back yard but you shouldn't be using the horn very often and a 35 amp (@12V) momentary button is cheap.
Drill the shaft and run a wire to a slip ring made of a piece of copper pipe epoxied to the outside of the column, run a contact arm on the slip ring. That'll give your circuit access to the inside of the column. If you don't want to drill the column run the wire out though the bottom of the hollow shaft to the UJ. The slip ring will turn with the UJ so shouldn't be a problem for the wire. P
On my 51 AD, the horn wire goes inside the steering column but only to just under the dash where there's a hole for the wire to exit which continues out the firewall (with the main harness) This routing is factory.
Thanks for the fast replies guys, I think this right here gives me the ideal i was needing ... Thanks .....
The Jalopy Journal
