The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1971 steering column, 1965 c10, horn button not working

photos of inside of column, here:

04/23/2022 — Horn Button — 11 pictures


The patient:

1965 Chevrolet C10 pickup

1971 Chevrolet C10 non-tilt, automatic shift, steering column

I believe that the steering wheel itself and the horn button are the 1965 style.

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The problem:

The horn on my truck stopped working. I started troubleshooting to check on what may be causing that.

First off I jumped a wire to the horn to find out if the horn would sound. It sounded, so the issue was not the horn itself.

Then I found a write up about how to test the horn relay(thanks Vaughn, on Chevytalk), so I did that and the relay was clicking away happily, so that isn’t the problem.

I did some continuity checks with my multi meter on the various wires that go from the steering column, through the dash and down to the horn relay and horn. I did find one wire that I had repaired before that was broken, but after I fixed the wire, the horn would still not sound when I hit the button on the steering wheel.

I took the horn button off, took the pieces out, pulled off the steering wheel to check things out inside.

I have never done this job before on any vehicle, so I had no idea what to expect or look for.

The only thing that seemed off was the horn contact switch, which is a piece of metal rod, a spring and a plastic thingy that snaps into the plastic signal cancel part. It was not snapping in place anymore.

I ordered a new one which had a new spring, the new rod(which was too long) and the plastic snap in thingy that holds the spring and rod in place.

According to the installation instructions, the metal rod needed to be cut to 3/4″ for all models 1969 on.

So I did that, put everything back together, hooked up the battery and the horn just sounds away.

HMnnnn.

I took it back apart, checked it out, checked the rod again, sanded it a little smoother on the end, put everything back.

Then I finally got it to where it wasn’t sounding as soon as I hooked up the battery. However, when I hit the horn button on the wheel, it would hang up and keep sounding, was not going off or bouncing back.

Maybe I put something in backwards, maybe a part fell out that I did not see, maybe a old part disintegrated and is not there anymore, I’m not sure.

I've never done this job before on any model vehicle so this is all new to me.

If anyone has any pics of there 1971ish steering column internals or information they can share from the 1971ish manuals, that would be great as well.

Thanks for any tips, suggestions or advice on things to do/check.

-Woogeroo

Well, with a mix of parts I’m not sure what “normal” would look like. My 63 and 65 columns have a brown (of memory serves me) wire inside the column horn mechanism which will cause the horn to sound if the brown wire connects to ground. So your horn button is connecting the ground but not releasing from ground somehow. That means your horn button sticks, or a spring mechanism under the button is binding.
My thoughts are written here, but I’d like to see pictures.

This manual might help, but it's for 1979 models. I thnk the 1979 columns had steering wheel locks, and the 1971 ones didn't. The horn button may be the same.

http://oldcarmanualproject.com/manuals/GMC/1979/LTService/03B/index.htm

Thanks for the replies folks.

-Woog

05/19/2022 / update: I did some more monkeying around with the horn switch, it seems to work now.

I had that metal plate thing that the 3 screws go through, in backwards. It honks when I want it to now.

Thanks for the replies.