"Something in the Orange"
I think this is gonna work now. Fingers X'd.
Ok so how does one have a short in the horn bad enough to burn up a relay and an air pump? I mean the horn is blowing so how long would you let that go on, right? Well it happened while the car transport guy had it. So one contractor picks up the car and takes it to Bellingham or somewhere north of Seattle (from east Texas). We were still between houses and had to let them hold it for a couple days and then meet up in Poulsbo where I had a storage unit. They hired a local tow truck to take it on the ferry and meet me. They said late afternoon, I sat at the storage place until 11 p.m. When they finally got there the horn was blowin' it's *** off. LOL I think the poor dude in the tow truck had been trying to get a handle on it but couldn't. By the time I see him, he's about to lose it! (one of those cheapie 150 dbl air horns- inside a ferry ???!!!) . I pulled the negative off the relay as soon as I get my hands on it but it's HOT. It never worked again. My wife was going to accuse the moving co. of screwing the car up but I waved her off cuz I had a suspicion that something I did may have caused it....
a little background;
Turn signal switch; Rants and Raves
So this time I learned that the worn out threads in my pot metal column are probably why I had trouble bolting the first switch in and destroying it. The second switch came outta the box with it's own weird problems that I thought were rectified. Obviously it wasn't and it picked the absolute worst time to fail. So two things going on that led to the continued horn circuit short; 1 loose turn signal switch and 2 a jury rig that ya'll don't know about yet. I'll get to that.
first
Ok so the jury rig. If you read the thread on the attached link, you learn that this second switch had some issues. I thought the dark green wire being backwards was the problem but it wasn't the entire story. Both switches that I procured were made out of some really soft plastic. What I learned was the top end of the switch flexes enough that the top two contacts inside don't actually touch. So while I had a horn and the turn signal cancel was working the rear turn signals and brake lights were not. I noticed that a little bit of pressure with my finger while the hazards were running made them work. Voila right? I enter into evidence exhibit A:
I added a bit of plastic to provide the pressure and not jumper my hot wires. Kiss of death for the horn coupled with that loose turn signal! That head snuck out and kissed the back of the steering wheel hub and that was that. The fix unfortunately requires that the pressure is still applied however! So I went with exhibit B:
That's just a little circle connector with the insolation still on it mounted with the fat end toward the switch. This way that screw stays well away from the hub and I get that little bit of pressure to keep those plastic halves close enough together to make contact. I have a feeling that the manufacture of that backward mounted dark green wire was supposed to provide that pressure. But I disagree that smashing it up against the column is the way to go long term. What d'ya think?
it works by the way, I will keep from handing the car over to a shipping company while I conduct sufficient road tests !!! TBC (actually I hope this is the end of it)
I think this is gonna work now. Fingers X'd.
Ok so how does one have a short in the horn bad enough to burn up a relay and an air pump? I mean the horn is blowing so how long would you let that go on, right? Well it happened while the car transport guy had it. So one contractor picks up the car and takes it to Bellingham or somewhere north of Seattle (from east Texas). We were still between houses and had to let them hold it for a couple days and then meet up in Poulsbo where I had a storage unit. They hired a local tow truck to take it on the ferry and meet me. They said late afternoon, I sat at the storage place until 11 p.m. When they finally got there the horn was blowin' it's *** off. LOL I think the poor dude in the tow truck had been trying to get a handle on it but couldn't. By the time I see him, he's about to lose it! (one of those cheapie 150 dbl air horns- inside a ferry ???!!!) . I pulled the negative off the relay as soon as I get my hands on it but it's HOT. It never worked again. My wife was going to accuse the moving co. of screwing the car up but I waved her off cuz I had a suspicion that something I did may have caused it....
a little background;
Turn signal switch; Rants and Raves
So this time I learned that the worn out threads in my pot metal column are probably why I had trouble bolting the first switch in and destroying it. The second switch came outta the box with it's own weird problems that I thought were rectified. Obviously it wasn't and it picked the absolute worst time to fail. So two things going on that led to the continued horn circuit short; 1 loose turn signal switch and 2 a jury rig that ya'll don't know about yet. I'll get to that.
first
thanks for that. I used a little JB weld for aluminum I had for boat projects and that worked pretty good. I used some locktite too! It feels like it's going to stay put now.
Ok so the jury rig. If you read the thread on the attached link, you learn that this second switch had some issues. I thought the dark green wire being backwards was the problem but it wasn't the entire story. Both switches that I procured were made out of some really soft plastic. What I learned was the top end of the switch flexes enough that the top two contacts inside don't actually touch. So while I had a horn and the turn signal cancel was working the rear turn signals and brake lights were not. I noticed that a little bit of pressure with my finger while the hazards were running made them work. Voila right? I enter into evidence exhibit A:
I added a bit of plastic to provide the pressure and not jumper my hot wires. Kiss of death for the horn coupled with that loose turn signal! That head snuck out and kissed the back of the steering wheel hub and that was that. The fix unfortunately requires that the pressure is still applied however! So I went with exhibit B:
That's just a little circle connector with the insolation still on it mounted with the fat end toward the switch. This way that screw stays well away from the hub and I get that little bit of pressure to keep those plastic halves close enough together to make contact. I have a feeling that the manufacture of that backward mounted dark green wire was supposed to provide that pressure. But I disagree that smashing it up against the column is the way to go long term. What d'ya think?
it works by the way, I will keep from handing the car over to a shipping company while I conduct sufficient road tests !!! TBC (actually I hope this is the end of it)