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Expert
Posts: 3480
Location: Montreal, Canada | I had the center of the horn ring off today when reinstalling my steering wheel, and as I was checking if everything worked fine I noticed sparks flying off at the contact ring when blowing the horn... pretty sure the horn is not supposed to create sparks, right? Any idea what might be causing this? Some bad ground somewhere?... |
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Expert
Posts: 3575
Location: Netherlands | One always disconnects the battery when the steeringwheel is removed.
The horn wire is usually live at all times.
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Expert
Posts: 3480
Location: Montreal, Canada | BigBlockMopar - 2017-07-30 3:33 PM
One always disconnects the battery when the steeringwheel is removed.
The horn wire is usually live at all times.
Of course the battery was disconnected when I removed the wheel.
I noticed the sparks when everything was put back on, except the chrome center cap of the horn ring. |
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Expert
Posts: 1906
Location: Ontario, Canada | Is there any corrosion on the copper ring? Clean it up with a scotchbrite pad?
Greg |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 309
Location: Western Colorado | David,
If a Plymouth is the same as a Chrysler, you should not have power to the horn circuit in the steering column. The horn contact ring is the ground circuit only. On a 58 Chrysler the ignition switch, when turned on, supplies power to the horn relay. The horn contact ring provides the ground, completing the circuit, which closes the contacts in the horn relay, making the horns blow.
Completing a ground circuit should not cause any noticeable sparks.
Hope this helps.
Bob |
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Expert
Posts: 1316
Location: Belgium, 40 miles south of Brussels | David, I noticed the same thing on mine : sparks on the horn ring when making contact.
I thought nothing of it and thought it was part of the way it worked.
Now you got me wondering ... |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Posts: 13042
Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island | It's very normal to have some sparks when a contact pair is closing the circuit. The contact ring grounds the horn relay coil, so it's low consumption.
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Expert
Posts: 3768
Location: NorCal |
That's why they eventually went to horn relays, instead of the high-amperage load being grounded at the horn ring, the horn ring only grounds the low-amperage load of the relay. |
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Expert
Posts: 3480
Location: Montreal, Canada | Ok, Thanks a lot for the info guys! I won't worry about it anymore then. |
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