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RE: Very odd horn electrical problem

To: "Freeman, Noah" <nfreeman@baincapital.com>, "Triumph (E-mail)" <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Very odd horn electrical problem
From: Brian Sanborn <sanborn@net1plus.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 10:17:52 -0400
>===== Original Message From "Freeman, Noah" <nfreeman@baincapital.com> =====
>Hello all-
>
>Spent sunday getting the horns to work- cleaned all the contacts, and they
>work great again...
>
>Now have a very odd problem- If i plug the horn in fully, it works great when
>I push the button (though Im not wild about the squeeky tone of hte horns
>themselves)...teh problem is, it also activates with any  jostle to the
>car...slam the door, the horns beep for a second...hit a bump, the horns go
>off...
>
>It seems particularly senstive to jostles of the steering column...simply
>touching the column next to the engine block makes the horns go off, even 
with
>only a tiny deflection of the column... (could this be b/c the problem is in
>the steering wheel, so the steering column is highly sensitive?)


Noah,

This is classic TR4 bug.  The horn is sounded by switching the ground in the 
seering column. There is a plastic or bakelite ring with a brass ring 
contantact ring up in the bulge behind the steering wheel. There is also a 
little plastic tube with a brass plunger that makes contact with the horn 
button.

I am guessing that your steering wheel has a lot ofslop inside the column.  
Most likely the column itself has play in the dash mount.  There is enough 
play... such that when you go over a bump or slam the door the parts inside 
the column move and are touching the housing and grounding.  The problem might 
also be in the horn button setup.  This also gives a symptom of erratic 
operation of the horns when do hit the horn button on purpose.

When I rebuilt my dashboard a few years ago I had similar horn and steering 
wheel slop problems.  I replaced the switch ring which had craked in 10 
places, the plastic bushings in the steering column and replaced the the felt 
packing at the steering column attachment points on the body and dash... which 
had disappeared with a PO somewhere... sometime.  This solved the steering 
wheel slop and the horn problems.

Brian Sanborn
62 TR4  CT16260L(O) - Groton, MA

My TR4 Restoration Web Site
http://www.net1plus.com/users/sanborn
E-Mail: sanborn@net1plus.com

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