Will the horn honk all the time if steering wheel is off?

[Bocephus69]

I am installing a new steering column from CPP. Upon hooking up the battery my horn honks constantly. I don't have the steering wheel installed yet, does that make a difference? I am not sure how the horn circuit works.

I also have rewired the entire truck with a new Painless wire harness, LS engine swap, etc. While I feel very competent with my 12 volt skills, I could have made an error someplace, so keep that in mind...

I constantly have 12v to the brass horn pin on the turn signal switch. When I ground that pin to the column's splined shaft, the horn turns off.

[fun in dirt]

The wire up through column & to horn button should be the ground wire (black) from horn relay. Pushing button actually grounds it, opening switch letting 12V power go out (green wire) from that horn relay to the horn itself to honk. So if you have that black wire touching other metal/grounding yes it will be honking.

[Bocephus69]

Originally Posted by fun in dirt

The wire up through column & to horn button should be the ground wire (black) from horn relay. Pushing button actually grounds it, opening switch letting 12V power go out (green wire) from that horn relay to the horn itself to honk. So if you have that black wire touching other metal/grounding yes it will be honking.

thanks for the reply. I was testing things out this morning, and I found that the black wire is shorted to the brown (constant 12v wire). Something is messed up behind the turn signal switch. I started unscrewing the switch and the problem went away. I tighten the screws, and the short re-appears.

[Stocker]

You can remove the green wire(s) from the horn(s) while you are chasing that short. That way the horn won't be blasting all the time. You can hear the relay clicking under the dash as the wire is grounded / ungrounded. Saves your sanity (and that of your neighbors if you have any).

[Bocephus69]

Originally Posted by Stocker

You can remove the green wire(s) from the horn(s) while you are chasing that short. That way the horn won't be blasting all the time. You can hear the relay clicking under the dash as the wire is grounded / ungrounded. Saves your sanity (and that of your neighbors if you have any).

That's exactly what I was doing.... Just listening to the clickety clack of the relay!

[Bocephus69]

The reason I didn't dig into this deeper before was because I wasn't sure what CPP would say about it if I tore everything apart. I spoke to them on the phone and said they would send me out a new turn signal switch because they believed that's what the problem was. So after that I tore the old signal switch out and found the problem. The signal switch and Horn switch assembly was not assembled correct, and there were loose pieces where the horn contactor is. I fixed it, put it back together, and now it works good. I will still see how the new switch looks when I receive it. I might install that one...

[Stocker]

Excellent... thanks for the follow-up!