Can I simply unplug the horn relay on 71 c10?

[Tri0315]

I have a short somewhere and it's draining my battery every couple days. I have read many post that say this is a common problem with it shorting in the steering column. My truck currently does don't have a horn so can I just unplug the relay? My horn relay switch was very hot after I drove it the other day so I just unplugged it for now, wondering if leaving it unplugged long term is ok.

[Tx Firefighter]

Unplugging it won't hurt a thing.

[cdowns]

it is alot better to fix the wiring and having functional horns long term


having a dead short in you steering column can eventually lead to your truck burning to the ground under the right circumstances long term

[franken]

Being lazy, I'd disconnect the battery as needed and then figure out the relay bit.

There's a great wiring diagram on this site even though it's a bit generic and not true for all years it's better than nothing. A hot spot means a resistive connection (otherwise known as voltage drop), or a short somewhere.

CD, Might want to un-allcaps your sig, and fix the spelling/grammar. No sense advertising...

[VetteVet]

If your relay is hot that means the black wire is touching the ground all the time, and if you had the relay wire connected to a horn, that's the larger green wire, then then horn would be blowing all the time. The red wire is the power wire to the relay and it connects to the horn when the relay is energized. It also provides the power for the relay coil to magnetize and connect the red and green wires.

The black wire is the ground side of the relay and it's just doing what it normally does only now it's touching ground all the time. Unplugging the relay removes the ground side of the coil inside the relay and it will not cause any problems except that the horn won't blow if you ever connect one.

If the black wire inside the column should ever touch the other wires in the turn switch or any of the points on the turn switch itself it would cause a short between the positive and negative sides of the circuit and that would blow one of the fuses in the fuse panel. If they are all fused properly then it wouldn't cause the wires to get hot.

The best thing to do would be to pull the steering wheel and see if you can find the reason for the black wire to be touching the column ground, but it is not a reason to panic.

After you unplug the relay then use a voltmeter on the ohms scale and check between the black wire in the plug and a good clean ground. If you get a reading it confirms that the black wire is touching the ground either under the horn button or by having a bare spot in the insulation on the black wire inside the column.