horn contacts

[Dav]

my horn has never worked right; occaisonal weak honks but usually nothing. the horn and relay are good.
so today, since i have an abundance of time, i took apart my steering column. had to go to o'reilly's to borrow the steering wheel puller. natch, a previous borrower had knackered the threads on the bolts i needed. so i did enough fixing to do what i need..
the contacts to touch the ring weren't. one has a bit of bounce and the other pushed down and stayed there.
ok, time to canibalize. put the loose steering column in the vice and put the puller on it. the old cosby routine; i'm thinkin' you're comin' off, it's thinkin' oh no i'm not!
so i took the puller to ol' number 7, the parts truck. wheel came right off. no 7 is, or rather was, a 89 extended cab. now it's a collection of barely connected parts. and it had cruise control so it has a different connector with 3 contacts. i drilled out the tiny rivets that held it together. waste of time. it was days away from breaking the tiny wires inside so no swapping parts.
the LMC catalog has no horn ring wiring parts listed. and i'd bet my next paycheck that ford doesn't carry that part (safe bet 'cause i'm out of work. forever)
being as how florida has no state inspection, i don't have to fix this. and i could put the button in. but i like the horn on the wheel
tomorrow i will go to ford just to be sure but then it's off to the only u-pick listing a series 1 ranger.
if anyone knows of a source of the part i need, please feel free to jump into this post

 

[RobbieD]

Have you checked eBay? Sometimes the oddball hard-to-find parts show up there. Then I try Mr. Google for leads. And, sorry, the clockspring contacts are something I've never had find, myself.

 

[Dav]

just checked ebay. no luck but thanks for the tip. i browsed google til i was falling asleep and now i'm going to do it again...sleep, i'll skip the google part

 

[Dirtman]

I love you

 

[Dav]

but you hardly know me.

 

[RobbieD]

@Dav - See the last post on this TRS thread:
https://www.therangerstation.com/forums/index.php?threads/what-is-this-horn-contact-thing-in-steering-column-called.168921/

 

[19Walt93]

I needed horn brushes for my 93 and couldn't find any, either. I found a set for something else in my random electrical box and cannibalized it. The brushes are now in the Ranger brush holder and the horn toots. I hated to bother with it but NH requires a horn for inspection. I don't use it except for inspection because I think blowing the horn at someone is rude and it doesn't stop my vehicle or steer it out of trouble. I've driven in Philadelphia and D.C. and understand why people there would feel different about using their horn, the traffic would make me want to use a pistol. I don't know how they stand it.

 

[Dav]

well, i did the junkyard today. ford lists the part as obsolete. so across the almost deserted city i went to clearwater. took longer to find the 87 in the u-pick than to get the horn contacts(brushes). 87 with cruise; 3 contact pins. my 88 no cruise; 2 pins but holder could take 3. 89 parts truck (my infamous number 7) w/cruise; 3 pin w/space for a 4th. the loose steering column from a 91; 2 pin (i'm going to cut the wheel off to get the contacts to save). all 4 have a different plastic pin holder and none mount quite the same.
drilled out the tiny rivets and swapped parts to get the 2 pin i need. tried soldiering one pin to a wire but that didn't come out too well. ace hardware had 2.5mm screws to put it back together. in the morning i will put the wheel back on.
should i put some di-electric grease on the pins? there is plenty of old white grease on the rings but when i polish the contact surface i should degrease it first.
ted

 

[Dirtman]

Lube is your friend.

 

[sheep herder]