Extra wire at steering gear box area

[minicooper]

I'm replacing the stop, tail and turn signal wiring on my B3C. Looks like there are 3 wires that connect in the brake light switch area through a 3 hole bullet connector, the brake switch to tail light wire, the ignition to brake light switch wire and the fuel gauge wire. 

 

There is a 4th wire on my truck (in the same harness, but not through the connector) that I can't figure out -- it runs from the headlight switch into a hole in the steering gear box. It's not on the original wiring diagram and it doesn't make sense that there would be anything electrical in there. Maybe someone stuck the wire in there to move it out of the way and forgot about it? Could be it's the original tail running light wire, that got cut off at some point? It won't budge when I tug on it. Anybody know what this could be?

 

Roland

[Don Coatney]

Horn

[minicooper]

Thank you. I should have known that. Spent too much time over thinking that wire.

 

R

Edited January 20, 2016 by minicooper

[MBF]

If you can't pull it out of the box, it's likely the remnant of the horn wire which provide the ground for the horn.  I don't know why that would be going to the headlight switch unless it shared the circuit breaker on the light switch itself.   If I remember correctly, the - feed (which is the hot side in a positive ground system) goes from the accessory post on the keyswitch through a fuse to one terminal on the horn.  The second one goes from the switch mechanism under the horn button, through the steering column tube to the other post on the horn.  When you push the button you complete the circuit by making the ground,   The horn body itself is insulated from the cab through phonalic(sp?) washers on the bracket.

[ggdad1951]

Bear in mind you might not have a fuse,

FEF has no fuse and the horn grounds to the body thru the mount.

[minicooper]

Thanks, there are no fuses on this truck except for the inline fuse on the Signal Stat turn signal. Tracing the wire, it loops back up into the cab and to the headlight switch, that's why I couldn't figure out what it was. Since it was replaced at some point, the color of the wire doesn't match the wiring diagram. The horn works so something is right, even if someone made a change at some point!