Its good to see there is a complete assembly now for the plastic PRNDL plate with the horn button already installed. Its a bit of a pain getting the repo button installed properly in an old plate ring plate.
kbuhagiar , while you are waiting for the part to arrive a couple more items to check. One is the horn ring adjustment on the Steering wheel. When you turn over the wheel like the pic below there should be 3 adjusting screws. They may need some adjusting. The way the horn works is that there is power to a relay in the engine compartment (right side by the lights and radiator). This relay when activated completes a circuit and sends power to the horn. The horns are ground to the car to complete its circuit.
To activate the relay requires power on one side and a ground on the other to complete its circuit. By pressing the horn ring on the steering wheel you are completing the circuit to ground. The wire from the relay goes to the copper horn button in the PRNDL unit which is always pressed against the plate on the back of the steering wheel. This allows you to turn the steering wheel and still have horn capability at any location. As you press on the horn ring you complete the circuit from the relay to the button to the plate to the center shaft of the steering column. The three screws adjust to allow you to press the horn ring at 90 180 or 270 position and still complete a circuit. With an ohm meter on continuity you can check as you press the horn ring at various locations is a circuit complete between the plate and the center shaft ring. Adjust the screws to give a continuity at each location.
The other end of this story is that the steering wheel shaft needs grounding. There is a rag joint on the steering shaft that can be seen just outside the firewall. That joint is needed for smooth steering, but it also should have a ground wire that is attached across to complete the ground to the car. If that is missing you wont have a horn sound because the steering shaft is not grounded. I am posting this because 6 years ago one of the first repairs to my car was the horn. Fixed the wiring in the steering shaft, replaced the copper button adjusted the horn ring and nothing until I discovered the rag joint issue. Good luck
[attachment=0]Steering wheel a.jpg[/attachment
MN63.
Attachments
1963 Thunderbird Hardtop
1966 Mustang Coupe A code
Fortunately I have some automotive electric background, so I quickly troubleshot the circuit and had a good ground up to the connector at the bottom of the column, which led me to proceed with the wheel removal, and confirm my suspicions. I'll be replacing detent plate, shifter and bearing while I am in there.
Cheers, Ken
1962 Convertible
1966 Q-code Landau Coupe (sold)
1990 SuperCoupe 5-speed (sold)
MN63Tbird wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 4:31 pm
The other end of this story is that the steering wheel shaft needs grounding. There is a rag joint on the steering shaft that can be seen just outside the firewall. That joint is needed for smooth steering, but it also should have a ground wire that is attached across to complete the ground to the car. If that is missing you wont have a horn sound because the steering shaft is not grounded. I am posting this because 6 years ago one of the first repairs to my car was the horn. Fixed the wiring in the steering shaft, replaced the copper button adjusted the horn ring and nothing until I discovered the rag joint issue. Good luck
[attachment=0]Steering wheel a.jpg[/attachment
MN63.
Hi,
Can you tell me exactly where the rag joint is located?
Is it on the footwell side of the firewall or in the engine compartment side of the firewall?
Do you have a picture of it and the grounding wire that is attached to the rag joint?
The joint is located in the engine compartment below the master cylinder. Follow the steering column out of the firewall to the engine compartment. The rag coupling is a hard rubber flange a few inches in diameter wider than the steering column. It has bolts running through it. To ground the steering shaft there should be some metal connection between the bolts on the steering side of the rag coupling and the power steering pump side.
The coupling is there to take up a little of the torque and vibration from the steering system. Because the joint is rubber it does not conduct electricity. I dont have any pics of what was done at the factory. I just connected a wire to the bolt head on one side to the head on the other to provide the ground.
MN63
1963 Thunderbird Hardtop
1966 Mustang Coupe A code
