I have a 1958 -1960 Impala steering wheel on my car. Some time ago, I removed the wheel but when I put it back on, I managed to break the plastic donut piece above the diaphragm contact piece. Bought a replacement donut but can't get the horn to work. With the horn ring and such removed, I ground out the spring loaded contact on the cancelling cam and the horn honks but when I put everything back - no horn. Anyone out there who might have a clue, please help.
Well George, I pretty well agree with those sentiments. When some idiot cuts out in front of me I can't think fast enough to use the horn anyhow but I figure that if I've gone to all this trouble to wire one in, the darn thing should at least work.
My first reaction would be to get on the brakes. I have never used the horn in any car I have ever owned, I find 90% of the time the person doing the horn blowing is the one in the wrong. Last week I saw someone run a red light about T-bone another car then started blowing the horn as if they were the one done wrong!
Thank you alanp561 for the picture. That is the parts I'm dealing with. Everything was working until I "fixed" it. Took off the steering wheel to fill in the cracks, paint it and make it pretty. Upon reassembly, got the parts misaligned and managed to crack the donut when I tightened the screws. Sourced repro parts for the fix and it hasn't worked since. It's not that I haven't experience with this stuff since GM has used these parts clear into the 70's and I've never had any issues with them. I have scraped paint off all the surfaces that could make for a poor ground and tried checking as best as I could with a multimeter but dealing with parts that aren't screwed together and holding test leads with both hands is difficult. Probably a case of putting the pieces together wrong but I only see one way to do it and as I previously mentioned, this isn't my first rodeo. Hoping some one will chime in with a "You clutz, do it like this" and make me feel like an idiot.
this is a 57 but it should be the same. pretty poor video but it shows how the parts go. the one plastic part with the 3 holes must be still on the back of the horn ring in the video...
Thank you Moriarty. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I did and it don't work. Probably inferior replacement parts.
I think there is a right side up deal with the metal "spring plate" when it is on correctly the part with center hole is closer to the driver and the outside diameter is closer to the steering wheel... hope that made sense
Try cleaning along the outer part of the wheel hub. Sometimes xtra paint will cause you to loose ground. Keep jacking with it it’ll work.