I just got done replacing the shift column collar and the turn signal unit on my 78 Ford F150..The problem is i checked the horn buy grounding it before i put the horn pad on and it works, But when i put the horn pad on and try it, the horn will not work!! HELP!!

 

did you do this horn test with the wiring in the steering wheel before you installed it or just power it at the battery ?


if the first one..check the metal straps on the rag joint on the steering coupler.

if the second one
check the contact buttons in the horn pad.

 

i done the test before i hooke the horn pad up and the horn worked. Then i hooked up the horn pad and installed it and tryed it and the horn would not work..

 

so the horn worked by shorting out the wires but won't work with the horn button ?

Check your contacts in the horn pad and the horn brush on the steering wheel.

 

i don't want to sound crazy or anything but, what is a Horn Brush?

 

when i tried the horn with the steering wheel,(the male connectors) i grounded the hot and the horn blew.then with the the pad and it did not work when i pressed on the horn pad

 

Sounds like the contacts in the horn pad are damaged to me if I understood you correctly.

You can short the two steering wheel connections right now and the horn sounds correct?

You can gently pry the rubber part off the horn pad and take a look inside.

You will see where the two wires connect to the switches. Is one of the wires pulled from the pads switch?

 

yes you are correct!! I will unscrew the horn pad in the morning and take a look to make sure the wires are hooked up to the switches.. I went to a local junk yard today and tried three other horn pads from a van and two trucks the same year and neither one of the three worked either!!!

 

The horn brush is the brass looking stem coming out of the center steering wheel area.

 

o.k. this is on the bottom of the steering wheel..(back side toward the steering shaft..

 

Forgot to ask you if you had cruise control or not... I assumed you have not got cruise control though...

Forgive this question as it might be very very obvious to some, but...

You are pushing the horn pad on the sides where the buttons are right? The buttons on the edges have small slotted grips. The horn will not sound from the center "Where the Ford oval is" on these horn pads.

Another way to test the horn pads themselves is with a multimeter set to ohms. Hook the two wires to the pad and check for continuity when the buttons are pressed.

These type horn pads are notorious for going bad, on the 1971-1977, and the 1978-1986 pads. The plastic backing they are made of falls to bits and without the plastic you cant squeeze the switches together.

On trucks without Cruise control...

If you take one apart from the rubber cover, you will see the two long narrow black rubber covered switches on each side. There is metal strips inside and when the black rubber is squeezed together is how the horn makes contact.

It seems strange that you can short out the connections and "beep", but cant make any horn pad work... unless you were unlucky to get three defective pads.... which would not be likely but not impossible either...

Hope this helps...

 

Is it the cruise horn pad or the non-cruise horn pad that one must push that long connector into a steering wheel remover hole for the horn to work?

I keep forgetting

 

The non cruise control pad has just two female type conectors.