Club 80-90 Forums

Come again?

Final bits of the rebuild, added twin horns, thought that I should test them before adding the OEM relay arrangement.

Horns don't work, barely a click/fart/whimper.

Took horns off and tested direct off the van battery. They work.

Took steering wheel off and shorted the horn ring contact back to the battery earth with a jumper lead. Little more than a squeak.

Continuity tested the whole steering column including a full dismantle and separation off all the clamps right down to the relay box. All good inc. the collapsible element bridge wire and relay box to earth.
All spline joints scrubbed, greased, reassembled.
No difference.

Tried a different ignition switch. Same.

Pulled all the stalk connectors on and off a few times, checked for contact corrosion, nothing obvious.

By which point I was knackered! Why would I not have 12v on line 15 to feed the horn ring contact? Thats the first thing to check this arvo.

All the earths were changed to two ring terminals and M6 rivnut fixings, so its not the earth crowns at fault for once.

I have a lovely clean relay board at work that looks like new, next step is to swap that over incase something has happened during the protracted restoration work years ago i.e. water ingress and corrosion.

Works with engine running? My twin horn thing likes a lot of volts to sound. Mine is also relayed.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

The horn is neg switched and ignition constant live to the horn , so put a temp independent +12v to the horn and see if its the switching

slowcoach wrote: ↑22 Jun 2025, 16:23 Works with engine running? My twin horn thing likes a lot of volts to sound. Mine is also relayed.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

No different.

Mocki wrote: ↑22 Jun 2025, 16:53 The horn is neg switched and ignition constant live to the horn , so put a temp independent +12v to the horn and see if its the switching

Switch not the issue. As I said, with the steering wheel removed, I shorted the horn contact finger direct to earth using a jumper cable back to the battery earth. Still doesn't work, barely squeaks.

Decided to change the relay board anyway and good job that I did, found corrosion on some of the terminals for connector B, which includes the horn feed amongst others.
Then I had no power at all. I had left the spare/test ignition switch in the on position for days...