Steering tube sparks

[Guest jim murphy]

Completed replacing the steering gear today in a 1948 Dodge D24 and had everything from the steering wheel on down pulled during the process. While finishing up the job and readjusting some of the shifter linkage, the wrench happened to come in contact with the steering tube and caused electrical sparks. Horn was not attached yet, so am wondering if I have a short in the turn signal that is grounding out on the steering tube? Signals work, no smoke or electrical smells. Tube was so covered with grease when taking out that I dont really know if the short was pre-existing or if I crossed the two objects on removal. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Also, I have seen this on the forum before but dont remember the answer. With the new steering gear, the steering wheel does not sit properly when wheels are straight ahead. Will alignment correct this. (The old steering gear was so sloppy you could have it any where you wanted) Thanks much for any help.

[Guest Nile Limbaugh]

Make sure that the steering gear is in a neutral position with the wheels more or less straight ahead. I had a Sunbeam that required a half acre for left turns but would climb its own tail on right handers. It seems that some moron had disconnected the linkage, then turned the wheel one turn to the left and reconnected! So I didn't have enough rotation in one direction and too much in the other. Old cars are always an adventure!!

[Jerry Roberts]

Jim , I think your horn wire runs down the center of your sreering tube . Is it shorting out ?

[1949P17BC]

The horn wire does run down the center of the tube, As far as adjustment for the centering the wheel, when you reassemble make usr eyou start with the wheel centered, amke the needed adjustment. On mine, it was so worn that it took a while to get it straight and a front end alignment helped a lot

[Norm's Coupe]

Since the horn wire was not connected to anything, it could not short out and cause a spark. Also, if the clamp holding the turn signal was loose, that would not cause a spark either. My guess is that something under the dash is causing the problem. You probably have a bare wire hitting the steering column, or it could be a bare wire hitting the dash, which is what the column is attached to. Another possibility is some wire under the hood is bare and hitting the column. You will just have to run a check and find it through a process of elimination. Start with making sure no wires are hitting the steering column and work your way out from there.

Also, I noticed you are in Minnesota. It's cold & dry up there now, just like here. Depending on the type of clothing you have on etc., do not rule out the possibility of it was simply static electricity that caused the spark. Touch some other piece of metal on the car with one hand, then try to duplicate what you were doing. If you get no spark while doing this, that spark was probably static electricity coming from you. Static electricity can cause a good spark and jolt sometimes.

[Guest jim murphy]

Thanks for the input-will check the wires under the dash, all are the original

cloth coated wires and anything is possible. Hooked a volt meter up to the steering tube and getting a little over 1 volt running through it. Guess I could always hook up a little service light under and use that power!!!!!