Horn issues

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Hi all, having an issue with my horn.  Hoping it's an easy solution, it's obviously related to a bad earth somewhere.

The horn works fine with no key in the ignition, and will work with key inserted in ignition, but not turned on.  Horn will not work when in 'on' position or when engine is running.  When turned off, but key kept in ignition, the horn will not work until the key is removed from the ignition.

The car is a 1982 Giulietta, and the earth coupling on the steering column is intact.

Hoping someone has experience of this issue and can advise. 

[AikenDrum105]

Struggling not to make horn jokes...  oops..

that's very strange - almost sounds like the steering lock pin is providing the earth from the column to the steering shaft and then to the wheel when it's engaged,  but when you turn the key the first time it retracts - and stays retracted regardless of key position until you remove it - then it springs back in to lock.

Dunno if that helps Sheldon ....

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Struggling not to make horn jokes...  oops..

Yep, me too.

that's very strange - almost sounds like the steering lock pin is providing the earth from the column to the steering shaft and then to the wheel when it's engaged,  but when you turn the key the first time it retracts - and stays retracted regardless of key position until you remove it - then it springs back in to lock.

Sounds more feasible than anything I'd thought of up till now.  Thanks for that, will investigate further.  Cheers.

[AikenDrum105]

Do Giuliettas have that rubber damper / shear giubo in the shaft  ?  they sometimes have a little earth lead from one side of the damper to the other..    Why the horn's not just earthing through the shaft / column bush / bearing  I don't know ....   can you make it work if you rock the steering wheel fore/aft while holding the horn button down? 

Just clutching at straws - probably miles off target   Good luck !

Cheers,

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Okay, got the horns working all the time now, only problem is, I'm not sure how.....

I took off the steering column cowl to have a look around, couldn't ascertain much from just looking, decided I really didn't want to take out the ignition barrel.  Spent 30 minutes trying to find my multimeter (when there are 5 Alfas parked in the driveway it could be anywhere!) so I could unhook the horns and plug the meter into the leads so I could tell when they were working without annoying the neighbours too much (the horns are extremely loud on these).

One of the leads connecting to the horn had another wire plugged into it, which went back up through to the engine bay, but wasn't connected to anything on the other end, in fact it was just a bare end.  Very strange...

Anyway, hooked up the multimeter, and I seemed to be getting voltage to the horn all the time, key in or out, engine on or off.  Plugged the horns back in, without the extra wire, and it seems to be working just fine now.  Maybe that rogue wire was touching the body?  (I was working blind when I unhooked that lead, so didn't actually know it was there until I withdrew the lead)

Ah well, it's all working.  For now.

Run out of excuses, so have to do some work on the shitbox now.....

Thanks for the suggestions AikenDrum105, and yes it does have the little earth lead, and that was the first thing I checked.

[alfagtv58]

Aw come on.....nobody wants to take the bait.  Surely I'm not the only Kelvin Cunnington on here who is more than amused by this and wants to start on the schoolboy humour?

The horn works fine with no key in the ignition, and will work with key inserted in ignition, but not turned on. 

key and ignition, they're euphimism's right.....Pfiezer has a solution.

Okay, got the horns working all the time now, only problem is, I'm not sure how.....

It's the little blue pills

[scott.venables]

....couldn't ascertain much from just looking, decided I really didn't want to take out the ignition barrel.... 

I've heard many euphemisms but "ignition barrel" is a new one!

I seemed to be getting voltage to the horn all the time, key in or out ..... 

and so is "key"