Help! New owner of 66 Coupe with horn question please...thanks so much!!

[Monkeyface]

I am thrilled to have just bought a 66 327/350 coupe and am in those early stages of fixing the easy bits first. I have scoured the forum but can't find any reference to my first mystery so perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree (I have been restoring cars for over 35 years and I am an expert at barking up this particular tree along the way!). I have been trying to figure out why my horn does not work and have used the many excellent threads to diagnose it. I believe the issue lies within the column itself and assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the steering wheel and hub should be grounded in order for the horn contact to work. The mystery (at least to me) is that the stem and nut holding the wheel on are properly grounded as is the flat area of the hub where the nut contacts the hub. However the hub and wheel have no ground connection so the contact assembly is never grounded. I must be missing something as this seems impossible to me but what do I know? I have removed the nut and cleaned this area with no improvement. I have not pulled the wheel yet as my puller will not fit it and I will need to get another first. Before I do I thought I should at least ask to make sure this is not wasted effort. Thanks so much in advance for any help you might offer!!!

 

[Monkeyface]

update to my dilemma

I have put a small jumper wire between the steering wheel shaft and the mounting bolt for the horn contact and the horns work perfectly. I still cannot understand how the very center of the hub which makes contact with the steering wheel shaft can be grounded and the rest of the wheel hub etc. is not?? As before any advice is very much appreciated. Thank you!!

 

[vigman]

A couple of thoughts

The column gets it's ground from mechanical bolting to the dash... have you verified with an ohm meter that the column it self is grounded ?
The copper pin in the hub gets grounded when you press the horn button ( which is bolted to the hub ) ....

Can you take a picture ? Is it an after market wheel , hub ?

Mike

 

[Tom Bryant]

Welcome to the CAC

I have put a small jumper wire between the steering wheel shaft and the mounting bolt for the horn contact and the horns work perfectly. I still cannot understand how the very center of the hub which makes contact with the steering wheel shaft can be grounded and the rest of the wheel hub etc. is not?

Considering where you placed your jumper wire I don't think that the problem is that the column is not grounded.

Tom