Hey Guys,

Here's an odd one for you all. When the car is off, the horn works fine. As soon as it's running, the horn no longer works at all.

Any ideas?

Jon

 

thats very odd

 

All I can say is the horn is tied into the brake lights...

 

Horn button works by completing the path to ground. I'm guessing your ground connection on the steering column is not connected properly. When you turn off and remove the key the ground is made through the ignition switch steering lock lever.

 

If this is on the FB you've installed the re-speed rack/pinion kit on then you need to ground the rack somewhere. The easiest way is to put a small piece of copper (or any metal will work) between the rack and one of the rack mounting bolts. The stock steering box grounds the steering column, but since the rack is mounted on poly bushings it doesn't ground the column anywhere.
As 74RX4 said the reason it only works when it is off is because the steering column lock is grounding it, once you turn the key on the lock releases and there is no more ground.
Anyway, good luck.

 

It is also possible that the ground wire on the stock shaft (between the collapsible joints) has become loose. Pull off the horn button cap and test for continuity from the steering wheel nut to ground.

 

With the rack and pinion kit you replace the lower half of the steering shaft with a new one and I don't think any of us bothered to put that wire back on, there is enough contact between the two halves of the steering shaft to provide a ground. As long as you ground the rack it will be fine, same thing happened on both my FB's after installing this kit...

 

Yes I know, I was the one who figured out that copper strip trick.

I was referring to a stock setup as the wire there is to maintain contact with both halves since the nylon melted in between would break continuity. With the Re speed kit you use a aluminum dowel, and thus don't have the issue.