Horn Problems

[BroncoMedic23]

Installing WH 1973 OEM horn. Inspecting the wires designated for the original horn, there is a yellow and a black and judgin by the connectors, the yellow is the lead with a female spade connector and is intended to connect to the horn at the male spade. The black with a fork spade is the ground which I connected to the mounting bolt for the horn itself. I dont think its supposed to mount to the adjusment screw and thats the only other alternative I can think of. A little description of the electrical status. When closing the loop between the yellow lead and black ground there is power. With the lead attached, any contact with the adjustment scrwe to a groiunded item causes the horn to sound. So I know I have power getting there and that the horn works. This leaves either the location of the ground wire or a problem with the horn button assembly. My assumption is that the horn activates when the button is pressed by closing the loop and replicating what occured with the adjustment screw. I'm hoping I dont have to dismantle the steering column but will take any suggestions to identifyig the culprit or how to fix. The hazards dont work either but turn signals, brakes lights, reverse light do. The 20 Amp fuse for hazards is in tact. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[BroncoMedic23]

Additional info on setup. 1973 Bronco rebuild with aftermarket column and WH steering wheel and horn button. Have hazard switch on the column and on the dash. The button has two wires: one runs down into the column while the other runs from a ground inside the column to a ground on the button plate and to one of the posts (male spade).

 

[BroncoMedic23]

I dont think theres a relay or fuse in line with the horn. Theres definitely no relay in the hood. It would have to be somewhere in the dash.

 

[DirtDonk]

Is your bronco also a 73? If so then it never had a horn relay from the factory.
Is the wiring in the rest of the vehicle original? Or has it been replaced with an aftermarket harness?
These are all important things to note when you are talking about an aftermarket column and steering wheel.

And just to be sure, this is not a factory replacement steering wheel, correct?
Even though it’s probably using GM wiring and switch in the column, which column did you go with? If it’s a direct fit type then it would have Ford wiring and wiring colors.
I’m asking because I’m not near a wiring diagram at the moment and don’t have all the GM color codes memorized. You didn’t mention any colored stripes on the wire, so I figure it’s GM.
Ford does use yellow in the horn circuit, but they are striped wires.

Either way, it sounds like you will have to add your own relay. You can mount it in a few convenient locations and wire it multiple ways, so let’s make sure what you have first and we’ll go from there.

 

[Rustytruck]

the factory collum with the flasher mounted to it used a 3 prong relay mounted to the front of the passengers side relay. there is power at the relay the horn button sent ground to the relay the relay sent power to the horn horns were grounded at the core support by their mounting bolts. earlier Broncos used ground fed through the steering column and people had problems when they changed the steering rubber coupler. factory carried ground through the factory coupler because it had metal screen in the coupler. aftermarket couplers didn't provide a ground path. so you had to put in a jumper wire over the coupler.