I replaced the steering wheel - the horn didn't work

[IT Cowboy]

Someone put a 73 steering wheel in my truck so I replaced it with an original that I refurbished and refinished. The horn assembly looked the same with the little copper pin and spring and same parts but when I re-assembled it the horn didnt work.

The first mistake I found was I painted the inside of the wheel hub and its surrounding area. I removed the paint there and tested it with a jumper from the pin and that worked.

Next I found the flex ring and pushes in to contact the hub was not making contact with the center of the hub when pressed. Maybe those rings are different from model years? It has a little plastic surround and mount that I tried sanding the nubs off the back to make it closer and that didnt work. I ended up removing the plastic ring piece and put some silicone around the edges to act as an insulator and when I put it back in that was enough to allow it to flex and make contact.


I hope it will stay insulated and maybe someone here has some experience on how it is supposed to me or if there are different parts?

[Rust_never_sleeps]

diagram here, but IDK about differences by year
When it works, the contacts just float at the right distance, but if it gets doinked, IDK

https://www.lmctruck.com/steering/st...and-components