Bullitt-,
I stand corrected. Looking closer at the reproductions, seems they are all for Roadrunners. Right you are!
So with y'alls guidance (MANY THANKS), I was able to get the right tools to remove the crush can, only to find no black wire underneath. No worries, I needed to replace the starting key cylinder anyway. So I started unscrewing all the turn signal assembly to remove the bearing housing, and low and behold my black horn switch wire:
It was a clean cut, as if someone snipped it, I stripped one side to begin jumpering to see if the wiring up until that point was good (hey, no assumptions anymore after this electrical debaucle). After getting nothing for a while, I gave up for the time so I could think about it while getting the new key cylinder in.
Back to the bearing housing. No idea how to get it off, seemed very stiff and no apparent way to remove it.
So I do what I always do when I'm frustrated at something else, I took a deep breath and forced it. It wiggled free! Actually, not sure if this was a good thing or not. It seemed to take the whole steering shaft with it (yes, I removed the snap ring in front of the bearing), and I wasn't sure if this was in fact removing the shaft from the steering gear at the base of the steering column (in the engine compartment)...the up side was that now I could get to the lock housing and replace the key cylinder.
Replacing the key cylinder was as easy as removing the two screws and the plate underneath them, then pressing the cylinder release button and pulling it out. Greased the new one, put it in, voila!
Now, to get the bearing housing back in, made sure it was aligned and forced it back into position (with some wiggling). I ASSUMED that because it got back in place that whatever I pulled out before is also back into position, figuring I'd find out when I get the crush can back on and test out the steering... If anybody knows what this was or if I could have done something to avoid pulling out the shaft, please share.
So back to my wiring. I quickly reviewed my assumptions:
1. Key buzzer is working for the horn relay.
2. Jumpering from 1 to 3 on the horn relay socket sounds the horns (both of them, yay!).
After a bunch of tinkering with no success, I resorted to the maintenance manual flow chart. In jumpering from 1 to 2, then from the stripped black wire in the bearing housing above, back to 3, the horns sounded.
I believe this to mean that the horn relay is bad because I completed the circuit just fine without it. Is this correct?
I went ahead and ordered a replacement horn relay.
Now I butt-joined the two ends of the black wire, put the turn signal assembly back on, and retested, this time jumpering 1 to 2, then the retractable copper lead that touches the can assembly ring back to 3. Horns go off.
Okay, So I've got a working circuit, minus the horn relay, up until the crush can. But now I've realized another problem I didn't notice before:
The ring that retractable copper lead touches is broken off (and of course no wire). Okay, so I guess I have to get a soldering tool to repair it, but at this point, I believe I can create a wire that goes from this ring to the lead on the center pad of the steering wheel and get it all working. I went ahead and brushed the rust off to get it clean (shown above after the brushing).
One other question I had is that the copper ring on the crush can that the retractable copper lead touches is loose and rotates on the crush can. It's supposed to be tight against the crush can and rotate as you steer, right? If so, what do you guys recommend for getting it stationary again? Superglue?
JF
Topic: Fixing a dead horn - a newb's first attempts at electrical work (Read 5730 times)
