The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Replacing Horn ground wire.

There is a wire coming out of the steering column about halfway between dash and firewall. I assume it is the horn ground wire. It needs replacing. How do you get that wire out in order to replace it?????

it always helps if you specify the year you're dealing with .... that wire is part of the upper mast bearing, you need to remove the wheel and pry the bearing up, which can destroy the bearing in the process, but if the wire really need replacing you might as well get a new bearing before you tear into it, should be available from any of the vendors

Bill

Thanks red58.
She is a 1948 chev 1/2 ton truck. To get the bearing out I will have to remove the shaft. Was hoping to avoid that since the shaft and gear box are in excellent condition with very little wear an almost no free play in steering.

no, you cannot remove the steering shaft from the column - 47-59 the bearing comes off the shaft out the top, looks like this, see EL109 here .... the flange sits on the mast jacket, the bearing is press fit into the jacket, use a standard screwdriver or stiff putty knife to gently tap up on that flange all around until it starts to come out

Bill

Here's your steering gear totally disassembled:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/123248688
Here's the mast jacket bearing on it's way out of the top
as Bill described it:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/121665549
Here's the wire exiting the mast jacket:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/123129399
dg

An easy way to swap out this wire/bearing is to tape a string to the end of the wire sticking out of the mast. Then once you have removed the old wire/bearing, you can un-tape the string from the old wire, and then tape it to the new one and pull the wire back through the mast hole and tap the bearing into place.
Carl

Update on my horn wire dilemna. After for working for an hour trying to get the upper bearing out and only succeeding in messing up I tapped it back into its original condition and looked for an alternate solution. Success, I removed the screw and cover that holds the wire in place on the outside of the steering column. The wire extended out from the cover about 3" and was badly frayed. I used a 10" x 1/4" dia of Shrink Wrap and very carefully worked it over the wire , thru the hole and up the inside of the column. Then added an extension on to the pigtail copper wire that was sticking out. A larger dia of Shrink Wrap was slipped over the joint where the wire was tied together. And now the frayed wire is safe. In fact for the first time in 25 years (that how long we have had the truck) the horn works with the original horn button.

Thanks guys for your advice and comments. ken

Good save!