horn ring wiring

[mdelapp]

I have now accumulated the parts to re-install the horn actuating in the horn ring and eliminate the push-button on the dash the previous owner had installed. (53 commander hardtop Type E steering wheel)
The diagram in the manual does not explain too well how the pieces fit. Does anyone have a little diagram that explains the sequence of how they go togther. I know how the foam re-bound insert goes onto the cup but lost after that. I just don't quite see how the depressing the ring makes the contact to activate the horn.
Does the wire for the horn feed all the way down the steering column into the engine compartment or does it exit at the sterring column port just below the dash?
Thanks

Mike

Mike DeLapp
Barrington, IL
53 Commander Hardtop

[Alan]

The wire goes all the way to the end of the steering box in the engine compartment. I take a cpuple of pieces of .045" welding rod, tack them together and crimp to the wire with a electrical connector for 19-24 ga. wire with no plastic coating. Just shove the weld wire up the little hole in the plug on the end of the steering box and have someone inside the car to grab it when it comes out the end. The horn button grounds the hot wire. What generaly happens is the wireing chaffs and short circuits to the column or box and every time you make a turn the horn honks. It is to much trouble for most people so they put a button on the dash.

[mdelapp]

why is the wire un-insulated resulting in the grounding along the inside of the column? Wouldn't an plastic insulated wire prevent this and the horn ring ground out to make the horn function? Maybe I am still missing something. I would think that depressing the horn ring would make some grounding inside of the steering wheel area where all the little pieces are resulting in sounding of the horn. Can this horn wire exit in the access hole along the steering column and then run to the horn relay? Maybe not the original design but maybe better than a button on the dash.
Thanks
Mike D

Mike DeLapp
Barrington, IL
53 Commander Hardtop

[Roscomacaw]

Mike writes: "Maybe I am still missing something"

Indeed you are, Mike. What he means is that he's used a wire splice which has been stripped of it's plastic insulator - not uninsulated wire.[:I] Removing the plastic allows the splice to fit in the hollow steering shaft. Then INSUALTED wire can be crimped into that splice and then pulled thru.

Later Studes used a horn wire that exited on the side of the column but this was achieved thru use of a slip ring and brush arrangement.[^]

Miscreant adrift in
the BerStuda Triangle!!

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe