D24 horn ring

[busycoupe]

I took the steering wheel off to paint it.  I repaired a few small cracks, primed and painted the wheel with rustoleum primer and gloss top coat.  It came out OK, not concours, but I am happy with it.  The wheel has a full horn ring and before I took it apart the horn would only work if you pressed the top of the ring.  While I had it apart I inspected and cleaned everything, then carefully put it back together.  The horn still only works by pressing the top of the ring.  It appears that there is not enough rocking motion when pushing the bottom half of the ring, but I don't see how to correct it.  Is there a simple fix, or is this common to all D24's?

[Don Coatney]

I can only toot the horn on my D-24 from the bottom half of the horn ring.

[Plymouthy Adams]

you two need to trade insulation bushing....balance out your horn rings.....

[DonaldSmith]

How the horn ring actually works (counter-intuitively, for sure):  

The wire up the steering shaft is from the horn relay, and has to be grounded to honk the horn(s). 

This wire connects to a bar that goes across a big spring. Without the prongs on the back of the horn ring, pushing the spring away, the bar would complete the ground to the spring, honking the horn constantly.  The horn ring is insulated, so it can push the spring down without grounding the circuit.  

As the horn ring is pushed in one location, the opposite side no longer pushes the spring way from the bar.  So, you're not honking the horn at the part of the ring you are pushing, but by the opposite side.  

So, make sure that the ring is free to wobble in every direction.  

(There's a big washer that goes under the spring; I had it on top of the spring, and because of that, part of the horn ring was unresponsive.)

Good luck; we're all counting on you. 

Edited August 30, 2017 by DonaldSmith
typo

[busycoupe]

Thanks for the excellent explanation.  My horn ring is free in all directions, except when I push the bottom half of the ring I don't think it rocks enough to allow the spring to hit the brass triangular piece.  The only way that I can see to give it more motion is to bend the spokes of the horn ring.  I am very reluctant to try this because I am afraid of breaking the white metal cast ring.  

I guess I will just have to toot the horn using the top of the ring.  If I ever meet Don C.  on the road he can give me a low note and I can return a high note!

[Dodgeb4ya]

I've had to shim the insulator bushings with very thin washers to make the ring work in all positions on several different jobs.

Trial and error to get it just right.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Dodgeb4ya

[DJ194950]

Had a horn honking to easily-- liked to stay on after first push after trying adjustments.

Problem turned out after days and days for trying ,studying parts, etc.,  to be the cracks in the inner part of steer wheel caused several slightly raised areas that did not allow the contacts to have Just the right clearance to make contact when it Should- When ring was pushed anywhere on the ring and Only when pushed. The clearances were stupidly touchy! MY opinion!

Since you mentioned cracks in your wheel, could this be your issue??

DJ

Edited August 30, 2017 by DJ194950

[busycoupe]

The cracks in my wheel were in the spokes of the wheel near the hub. It didn't look anything was out of line, or misshapen. I don't think that cracks are the problem.

[DJ194950]

On this 47 Ply. the cracks ran in to the hub area and were also at the holes were the horn ring screws held in down onto the steel wheel. These cracks (mostly one of them) was slightly raised at the screw hole (slightly) and caused my problem, like I stated it was hard to see at first,touchy.

Just thought it could also be your trouble area, if not oh, well, just a thought.

DJ

[dpollo]

20 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

 

Trial and error to get it just right.

I hope your neighbors were away from home.    (or like mine who just moved away)  

 Those twin trumpets can be pretty impressive !   Seriously though, a bit of cotton waste stuffed into each horn's trumpet will make testing more tolerable noise-wise.

[DonaldSmith]

For testing, you could hook a test light to the horn relay, instead of the horns, and merely  annoy your neighbors with the sometimes steady, sometimes intermittent light, rather than with the blaring sound. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

29 minutes ago, DonaldSmith said:

For testing, you could hook a test light to the horn relay, instead of the horns, and merely  annoy your neighbors with the sometimes steady, sometimes intermittent light, rather than with the blaring sound. 

might be a sweet serenade to your neighbors especially if they are the type that play loud head banging music or have those stupid little bug in jar sounding exhaust with that road thump shock wave emitting from the trunk....that is something I could never understand....

[MackTheFinger]

14 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

might be a sweet serenade to your neighbors especially if they are the type that play loud head banging music or have those stupid little bug in jar sounding exhaust with that road thump shock wave emitting from the trunk....that is something I could never understand....

I was in the Sparton horn factory in Flora, Illinois back in the '80s. I about jumped out of my skin the first time I heard them testing horns, about a million of 'em at once!!

I useta play that loud head banging music. Still do but not so often. The cops would sometimes come by and say they were getting complaints from a mile away. Funny thing is, none of my neighbors ever said anything about the noise; even with unmuffled Harleys running in and out.  I've been in the same place for 40 years and I absolutely love my neighbors!

Edited August 31, 2017 by MackTheFinger

[Plymouthy Adams]

basically I was just being funny, we have but maybe one in the neighborhood that falls in the group I commented...small country community....I am tolerant of that up to X hour at night and I even will play my music a bit in the shop with the door up but at 9PM doors are closed and music is muffled....  I have two churches that are on the back of my property line...I have always waited till services was over before even doing any hammering...it is more an issue of respect I think that a din level...

[MackTheFinger]

I keep it pretty quiet nowadays. When we'd have band practice we tried to keep it down but sometimes the exuberance of youth would get in the way. Like Spinal Tap, our amps went to 11..and started about 9!! With a couple of Crown power amps the air from the low end enclosures would blow your wig off! That was a long time ago, though; guess I musta grown up!!  

[Don Coatney]

Last summer I was picking up my granddaughter on the last day of her swim club and it was picture day. I was out in the parking lot with my window rolled down and I could see all swim team members standing in the bleachers. I could hear the photographer instruct the kids to look at the camera, smile, then he would count one-two-three and snap the photo. On the second photo I was so tempted to hit the panic button on my key fob on the count of one as I know all the kids would have instantly turned there heads to see where the honking was coming from but I refrained. Sometimes it is fun to be a bad grandpa.