pulling the steering wheel procedure

[harmony]

I have a lazy turn signal on my 48 Chrysler, and lately the left side needs to be cancelled manually.  So I want to pull the wheel and have a look.  The turn signal unit out of my parts car is in good shape so between the two I'm confident I can solve the problem.  However the horn button wire runs up through the centre of the steering shaft.  Does anyone know if there is a quick disconnect male/female coupler inside just below the wheel where the wire can be disconnected?  I'm thinking if that's the case I can disconnect the horn wire.  Tape it to a foot long piece of mechanic wire, then let it slip down the tube out of the way of the puller. Pull off the wheel and then fix the turn signal and then reverse the process.  Being careful to not loose the wire down that tube.  Where it comes out at the steering box, there isn't any extra wire and no connector.  It runs straight to the horn relay.

I should mention that I don't have the factory puller tool C-612.  On page 165 of the service manual they show a picture but it's not clearly showing how the tool works to avoid the horn wire. ???  The illustration on the same page doesn't show a connector for the horn wire either. 

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by harmony

[TravisL17]

When I pulled the steering wheel off my 50 Dodge, I disconnected the wire at the horn relay and pulled the wire out the top of the steering tube. The wire has a male bullet type connector at the relay. When going back together, I found it easier to feed a piece of wire up through the tube, attach the horn wire to it and pull it back down. The hole at the bottom of the tube is small compared to up the steering wheel, which makes it difficult to feed from the top side going down. The horn wire on my car attached to the horn contact plate pretty firmly and didn't want to come off nicely compared to pulling the wire off the relay.

I hope that all made sense.

[Dodgeb4ya]

A standard 2 bolt steering wheel puller will safely pull the wheel with out damage. Leave the steering wheel shaft nut on loose just below the top of shaft threads to protect said shaft  threads when popping the wheel loose.

The connector for the horn wire is near the bottom of the steering gear.

Disconnect the connector....tape a long length of semi stiff wire to the bottom end of the horn wire....pull horn wire up and out of top of column.

Un-tape the horn wire from the stiff wire. Pull the siff wire back down the steering tube just below the threads.

Remove wheel....do necessary T/Sig work.

Push stiff wire back up and re-tape horn wire to it..pull horn wire back down and connect to wire connector.

I myself just pull the horn wire out using no pull back stiff wire.

I just straighten perfectly the last foot of said horn wire...then just slightly angle the bullet terminal....shove the wire down once maybe twice...goes right thru the box. 

 

[harmony]

33 minutes ago, TravisL17 said:

When I pulled the steering wheel off my 50 Dodge, I disconnected the wire at the horn relay and pulled the wire out the top of the steering tube. The wire has a male bullet type connector at the relay. When going back together, I found it easier to feed a piece of wire up through the tube, attach the horn wire to it and pull it back down. The hole at the bottom of the tube is small compared to up the steering wheel, which makes it difficult to feed from the top side going down. The horn wire on my car attached to the horn contact plate pretty firmly and didn't want to come off nicely compared to pulling the wire off the relay.

I hope that all made sense.

Yes that makes sense, and I got a mirror  and flashlight and had a look at the opening on the steering box and you're quite right. Very small hole.

[harmony]

32 minutes ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

A standard 2 bolt steering wheel puller will safely pull the wheel with out damage. Leave the steering wheel shaft nut on loose just below the top of shaft threads to protect said shaft  threads when popping the wheel loose.

The connector for the horn wire is near the bottom of the steering gear.

Disconnect the connector....tape a long length of semi stiff wire to the bottom end of the horn wire....pull horn wire up and out of top of column.

Un-tape the horn wire from the stiff wire. Pull the siff wire back down the steering tube just below the threads.

Remove wheel....do necessary T/Sig work.

Push stiff wire back up and re-tape horn wire to it..pull horn wire back down and connect to wire connector.

I myself just pull the horn wire out using no pull back stiff wire.

I just straighten perfectly the last foot of said horn wire...then just slightly angle the bullet terminal....shove the wire down once maybe twice...goes right thru the box. 

 

No connector on mine.  As I mentioned, mine is one continuous wire to the relay.  Besides that though your explanation sounds like the way I would approach it, but it would be nice if there was enough spare wire in the steering column tube to pull out, cut, and then solder on a connector at the top. It would be more fun working at the steering wheel end as opposed to down under the steering box.  

[harmony]

So after reading TravisL17 and Dodgeb4ya thoughts and procedure, I think I will disconnect at the relay, pull the wire up a couple feet or so, then cut the wire maybe a foot or so below the 3 prong brass horn plate.  Then add a connector like the ones up under the dash.  Well insulated.  I'll add an extra foot or so of wire and coil it like the old land line telephone cords.  Right now I can't remember how many revolutions the steering wheel rotates stop to stop.  But I don't think there should be any binding issues with this method.  I'll also add some heat shrink around the connector.  

[TravisL17]

Mine was also a continuous wire from contact plate to relay. On my car, the connection at the contact plate seems to offer some rotation, but it seems like the wire itself does most of the work when the steering wheel spins.

[harmony]

2 minutes ago, TravisL17 said:

Mine was also a continuous wire from contact plate to relay. On my car, the connection at the contact plate seems to offer some rotation, but it seems like the wire itself does most of the work when the steering wheel spins.

Interesting. 

[Dodgeb4ya]

No!!!?

Don't cut the wire whether early or late style direct to relay or not!!

Only hacky guys do that...pull the wire out! It's not that hard to feed back through the lower tube.

Do the job the correct way... the only way.

That is... unless the car is a total  beater.

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Dodgeb4ya

[harmony]

2 minutes ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

No!!!?

Don't cut the wire!! Only hacky guys do that...pull the wire out! It's not that hard to feed back through the lower tube.

Do the job the correct way.

 

Ahhh, but you've never seen my work.  The "correct way" would have been for the factory to have done it the way I'm about to do it. Professionally, innovatively, and funtionally.  So the mechanics down the road wouldn't be cursing the pencil pushers every time they pulled the wheel. 

[Dodgeb4ya]

Very easy to do these MoPar horn wires as is.

Five minutes done.

Also that horn wire is a special strand wire that resists thousands of cycles of twisting. 

I've replaced several of those horn wires because people had no patience or knowledge on the issue and cut then did a cheesy high resistance splice job. They usually twisted apart...no horn?.

It is your car. 

[RobertKB]

Do it like Dodgeb4ya recommends. He owns some beautiful cars like this and has worked on these cars for a living. He knows of what he speaks!

[chrysler1941]

If you haven't pulled the horn wire before, expect a dirty oiled messy wire, don't let it touch the upholstery. Don't ask me how I know ?

 

Dodgeb4ya, your description is the correct way. Do I see a Highlander?

[Dodgeb4ya]

Yes....You do see some Highlander in a T&C?

[wagoneer]

11 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

A standard 2 bolt steering wheel puller will safely pull the wheel with out damage. Leave the steering wheel shaft nut on loose just below the top of shaft threads to protect said shaft  threads when popping the wheel loose.

The connector for the horn wire is near the bottom of the steering gear.

Disconnect the connector....tape a long length of semi stiff wire to the bottom end of the horn wire....pull horn wire up and out of top of column.

Un-tape the horn wire from the stiff wire. Pull the siff wire back down the steering tube just below the threads.

Remove wheel....do necessary T/Sig work.

Push stiff wire back up and re-tape horn wire to it..pull horn wire back down and connect to wire connector.

I myself just pull the horn wire out using no pull back stiff wire.

I just straighten perfectly the last foot of said horn wire...then just slightly angle the bullet terminal....shove the wire down once maybe twice...goes right thru the box. 

 

 

 

Thanks for the instructions. I'm ready to try just to "straighten" my steering wheel. Last person put it back on off center to the left. Works properly, just visually very annoying for us obsessed with these details...

[chrysler1941]

28 minutes ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

Yes....You do see some Highlander in a T&C?

Cool. Barrel Back?

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by chrysler1941

[Dodgeb4ya]

Don't have that much money?

A convertible... have had it 43 years now.

[chrysler1941]

26 minutes ago, wagoneer said:

 

 

Thanks for the instructions. I'm ready to try just to "straighten" my steering wheel. Last person put it back on off center to the left. Works properly, just visually very annoying for us obsessed with these details...

Have your wheel alignment (toe in) checked before you straighten steering wheel. Tie rods could be misadjusted.

[Dodgeb4ya]

The steering wheel and shaft have splines....using one wider indexing spline to put the wheel properly on as designed by MoPar engineers.

Though some people have managed to force the steering wheel down on the shaft

splines incorrectly.