i have a Painless wiring harness in my 63, it has a stock horn wire in the steering column, stock dual horns, fuse box is modern as part of the painless system, the new harness is connected to the old harness very well with what I think are soldered joints covered by a high quality shrink tube.
My horn blows a short honk for no reason sometimes when I am turning the steering wheel, maybe once or twice a year, didnt figure it was anything serious and had no urge to fiddle around removing the horn ring, wheel etc as they can be real sensitive to get just right, you have to hold your mouth right?
But twice lately the horn has stuck on when I am closing the hood. I assume a problem at the horn end? It gets ground at that end via the mounting bolts and has one power wire. How does the horn work that it will stay on when I close the hood?
Pop the hood, disconnect battery, hook it back up, horn not blowing any more, gently close hood, drive home- no horn blowing. The 63 has the area between the grill and rad support covered by a metal part held down by about 10 bolts so not easy to deal with while the horn is blowing.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
The horn relay only does what it's told, it sends 12v to the horns when it gets a ground from the horn button. Sounds to me like it's getting a ground from somewhere, or the relay has gone haywire.
Havent found a horn relay in the Painless wiring harness, maybe I missed it or its not traditional looking mechanical unit, some sort of electric relay?
I agree a ground issue, just seemed strange the horn blows when I slam the hood, not seeming to be a ground issue in the steering wheel end. The horns are grounded by the bolts to the rad support? They have only one 12 volt power wire?
-- Edited by DonSSDD on Monday 26th of August 2024 12:08:35 PM
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
The horns are grounded by the bolts to the rad support? They have only one 12 volt power wire?
Yes, the horns are just grounded by the bolt holding them on.
I believe the way it is wired originally is as follows (not sure about Painless), but you may already know all this-
The horn relay uses 3 pins to make them work.
One is a wire from the battery (live all the time, likely red)
One is a pin that will have either one or two wires on the same pin, (likely green). It may come out as one wire and split at the horns or it may come out as two green wires on the same pin. That is the power wire(s) for the horn.
One is the wire that goes to the steering column/horn button (likely black with a green stripe, possibly just green). When you press the horn, it grounds the relay and power goes to the horns.
Cleary you have no broken circuits as the horns do work.
Have you tried smacking around the steering column/steering wheel area to see if that triggers them? I'm wondering if the hood closing shakes the connection in the steering wheel enough to make the horn button trigger that ground wire?
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
I wondering the same thing about the steering wheel. Guess I should bite the bullet.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
