Wiring The Horn Up Help

Hi, I'v got a 78' mk1 golf and having problems with the horn which hasent worked since I got it, so I decided to tackle the problem. I checked the horn and it has the live wires and earth to it. I pulled the steering wheel off to find no wires coming through at all. Can any one tell me how I go about finding the wire, I'v been told I'd need to take the stalks off and check for any wiring behind. I'm quite lost. And my local garages are being a pain in the butt, as they dont wana tackle small jobs  :evil:

Regards
Jassi

check the horn unit itself first. it may have seized, either get hold of a working spare or chuck current into the existing. then check the fuse(13 if i remember ). check for break in wires from horn under the car for splits. the steering wheel has brown and black wires the at meet the brass plate on boss. thats the "wire" removing stalks is the last place to check .

Hi mate i'v sent current to the horns they both work, the fuse is fine as i had just replaced every single one few weeks back, to refresh them. I remember when i got the car everytime i turned left the horn would go off lol. I found a piece of naked wire behind the boss and stalk, which i removed since then have had no horn.

I've just got my 1981 mk1 through it's MOT and the horn gave me some grief, hopefully I can give you some advice…

The horn is grounded through the steering column; the feed comes to the push button through a brass springy connector on the steering wheel boss, then through the push button in the wheel, and then to ground through the column. Open the bonnet and look at the where the steering assembly enters the engine bay and you'll see a very small cable grounding the column to the car body. My horn wasn't working because there was insuficient electrical connection provided through the column. It sounds like you're having a similar problem. That piece of wire you removed could well be responsible as well.

I fixed mine by running a ground wire from the back of the steering wheel, through the centre of the steering column, out through the universal joint near the pedals, then across to the ground points near the fuse box. All you have to do is leave enough slack in the wire so you can still go full lock to full lock and you should be fine.

Hope that helps and apologies for any mechanically incorrect language, I'm quite new to this sort of thing.

Right mate yup that makes sence, I was planing to running my own earth down to the fuse box area as I'm gona put a Raid sports steering in and remove the standard 3 spoke one. My only problem being that i cant find the power wire for the horn, is it ment to come through the fusebox loom? Can anyone help with that. As the Horn push on the raid sports wheel has a + connector and i'm guessing the other would be the earth.

Regards
Jassi

I've got an after market wheel on mine, the wiring for the horn in that area is something as follows: (it's been a while and I've just got back from the pub)

Remove the steering wheel and column cowl and you'll have three connectors for the stalks. On the left hand side is two connectors that have nothing to do with the horn; on the right hand side is a single connector. One of the wires in this connector leads to the horn. The feed goes from this connector, through a straight piece of copper through the stalk and terminates at the copper springy connector I described above. This connector mates with a copper ring on the back of the steering wheel. You need to run a cable between this copper ring and the push button in the centre of you wheel. From the other terminal on the push button, you run a cable to the steering wheel body, this is then earthed through the steering column.

If this doesn't work, then you've potentially got a poor earth through the column and need to run a ground wire as described earlier. If this still doesn't work, you could cut the cable leading to the stalk connector and run a new one straight to the horn (with an inline fuse), then run a cable straight from the positive on the battery to the other terminal on the horn. This would simplify matters a lot, not least because you know that there'd be no troubles in the loom that you've just bypassed.

I got mine working after a lot of fiddling with a multi meter; car electronics, however simple, are really not my area of expertise, but I got it going with some trial and error.

Cheers mate thats alot of help, think i'v got the idea of the way its wired all up, I'm assuming the piece of naked coper wire between the steering wheel was acting as a earth, since i removed that horn didnt work, So I'll check with a multimeter or a car tester to see if any power is coming through the little springy connector. If it is I'll runna wire from there to my horn push and run another wire of the horn push to a earth point in the car.

Thanks for all the help mate.
Regards
Jassi