Horn and other electrical issues

[richeilers]

I couldn't find anything to specifically answer my issue, so a new Horn thread....did find it odd though that other 71's had a horn relay under the dash. Were they supposed to be there? Mine is on the core support. So, here we go.......71 Blazer. Used to have a Voltage Regulator, now gone. DROVE my Blazer to storage in Nov, removed the battery. Went back in March to pick it up, noticed the small nut on the Junction Block was gone and wires were hanging off. Reconnected them, then the battery. When I put the Positive cable to the battery, much sparking and one of the wires on the JB started smoking and melting. Followed that wire to the core support where it had been butt spliced together and appeared to have rubbed through grounded itself against the core support. Replaced that 12 ga wire all the way over to the "main" splice on the driver's side. Still connecting the Pos resulted in sparks/smoke. After a day of troubleshooting, disconnected the wires to the Alt. Put Pos to battery, no spark, no smoke. Ah hah - bad Alt. Took it to the Zone, tested as BAD, bought a new one. Replaced, hooked up everything - no issue (except my stereo no longer comes on). Had noticed near the "main" splice about 3 yards of electric tape on everything there. Removed it all and found a couple wires just cut off and hanging - presumably they were Voltage Regulator wires just cut when the VR was removed for the newer style alternator. Also, two wires leaving the horn relay were cut, other ran to a pigtail type connector that then had another wire leading to a horn. Found the Dark Green horn wire from the firewall, ran it straight to the horn and it worked when I pushed the steering wheel horn button so I removed the horn relay and the second horn. So it would seem all is good. Starts, runs, lights, horn, everything else worked. Then a week later I decide to swap out the small custom steering wheel to a larger one. Very similar wheels, though old was painted and new is chrome. Removed button, wheel, contact ring which is a 1 wire from the ring to a spring loaded plunger. Put on the new wheel in the same order. Went to connect Neg cable to battery - horn starts blowing. What? Called Summit Tech Help, says I need three little "bumpers" under the contact ring. So I put some felt tabs on it to keep it off the metal of the wheel. That didn't fix it. Didn't get anywhere so I removed everything from the column to wait and try later with more Tech support. Decide to replace the battery holder frame. Disconnect everything from battery and JBox (to fix one connector end). Get the new battery box in, reconnect all except the Neg cable. Tap it on the battery and now the horn blows - with nothing on the steering column. And that's where I am now. Thinking I may have to bring back the Horn Relay? BUT - it all worked fine before removing the steering wheel. More than happy to provide pics if needed. Couple of things still bug me - how did the Alt short out with no battery in during storage? Storage place swears they didn't put one in it when they moved it. Why is the stereo not coming on now? How did it all work fine, horn too, up until I removed the old steering wheel? Do I really need the Horn Relay? Btw, I started with 3 horns down there and now have one. Also, the horn relay has a 3 wire plug and then a flat spade terminal next to that which had a wire (I think) leading to one of the horns.