Well, here's my dilemma, and maybe this will help someone answer my question in a round about way.
I put Hella horns on the 60 because the OE horns never worked, ans apparently sucked when they did.
I've got the Hella horns wired up and working (with a toggle switch), but I want to use the real horn buttons to still honk the horn.
I found the wire coming out of the brass contact on the back of the steering wheel.
I used my voltage tester to test it (the light up handle variety), it was dead at both pressed and un-pressed horn positions.
There has to be another wire to get voltage to the circuit, right?
One for 'in', one for current 'out'?
I'm no electrician, but maybe someone here can help me out with that.
Oh, and JJ- the Hella horns are plenty loud (I got the 500hz/300hz horn kit) and were relatively easy to put in. Hella only provides the horns and a un-wired relay, but they do supply a wiring diagram that tells you where to put each wire generally. You have to supply the wire and connectors.
And, no the Hella diagram does not tell me where to get volatge on the OE wheel.
I believe the horn buttons are grounded on the steering wheel through to the horns.
Then from the horns, they share a 15a fuse with the hazard lights on the fuse block.
Assuming there's no power at all to the horn leads, have you checked for a steering wheel ground, power at the fuse block or the fuse itself?
You can test for ground using a self powered continuity tester and connect one end to a known ground and the other to the connection. If you don't have one, you can jump the connection to a known ground and test if you've closed the circuit.
I would check for voltage and continuity each segment at a time, starting from the horns themselves. Jump the horns with battery power to see if they were bad to begin with if you haven't already removed them. I assume you'd rather use the existing wiring for your new horns.
Then check for voltage at the horn leads with the horn button pushed in. If there's voltage, then check the ground. If there isn't voltage, then the circuit is open somewhere to the steering wheel. I see no relay in wiring diagram.
Check if the spring brass connector is making good contact at the wheel. Then test the circuit from the wheel to the button and from the button to ground. You may have an open circuit somwhere or your buttons themselves may be bad.
The horn contact pin may be worn down to a point where it is no longer touching the ring on the back of the steering wheel (somewhat common) Replacement pins are available and not expensive.
There was no voltage to the connetors on the horns themselves before I removed the OE horns. I am NOT using the existing wiring harnesses because I do not know where the short lies.
The brass contact IS making contact with the brass circle on the back of the wheel. I took the wheel off and sanded a bit of corosion off of the internal contacts for the horn buttons, but nothing changed.
Part of the problem is I don't know if the wire coming off of the brass contact is power or ground. If it's power, there's no power running through it. If it's ground, where's the power?
sanding it down isn't going to help it. What you need to do is hook up your new horns to the old wiring, then, pull your wheel again, and add a few washers behind the brass ring to raise it up. You can do that to test it all out. It's a common problem with the 60. When that pin wears down, it won't contact and you'll get the sick/pittiful horn. If you search the forum, there's tons of threads about it.
Also, it may look as if it's making contact, but if that horn isn't honking, it's not. The fact that you found corrosion on it is a big tattle. That thing is ALWAYS rubbing on the brass ring, and shouldn't have any corrosion.
You can also check all of your contacts in the wheel it's self. If the three screws that hold the front part of the wheel on aren't in right, the switches under the buttons won't ground right and that'll cause a problem too.
Also, the brass ring, IIRC, is the hot spot. The ground is through the steering column, into the switches under the buttons in the wheel. There's no need for a second wire. It's a very, very simple switch.
The brass ring is + and the steering column is ground. The single wire going to the underside of the spring pin should be hot. I continuity tester should confirm this. If it's not hot, then - sorry to say- you need to trace back from there to find the short. Since you've got power at the fuse box, it's somewhere in between the two. You could just run a new wire altogether.
I replaced my pin and ring, and the horns worked, but were still lame. I bought some aftermarket horns at NAPA, and now I scare myself when I use them. They draw enough amps that I needed a relay however.
The stock horn harness has two wires where it connects to the horn. One is ground, the other is hot. I left the stock horns in place, but added an additional new wire from hot to the switched connector on the relay. There are two other connectors on my relay, one for the battery and the other for ground. Really easy to wire up.
Now when I hit the horn button, both the stock horns and the aftermarket ones "ignite" together.
My wife is jealous, she wants the same for her fzj80...If I do that do I get an H55 for my 60? Seems reasonable to me...
I cut the green wire near the large blue wire connector in the middle of the steering column, and spliced it into a new constant power wire from the fuse box.
As soon as I pressed the horn button the 15 amp fuse I tapped into blew out.
I don't konw squat about electricity, does this mean I have a short somewhere between the splice and the brass pin?
toyotas (at least cruisers) use the opposite of what u r testing for, the are grounded constantly and then when u push the button it send the power through, weird, but that's how they did it, so check fuses, horns, and the wheel
I cut the green wire near the large blue wire connector in the middle of the steering column, and spliced it into a new constant power wire from the fuse box.
As soon as I pressed the horn button the 15 amp fuse I tapped into blew out.
I don't konw squat about electricity, does this mean I have a short somewhere between the splice and the brass pin?
Doc, sounds like what you did was essentially connect pos. to ground via the horn button and blowing the fuse.
I see that in our system, ground is switched at the steering wheel, through to the horns.
In your case, the brass pin contact to the ring, the horn buttons and the ground connection at the steering wheel are good. You wouldn't have blown the fuse otherwise.
So it seems your problem was elsewhere.
Here's an diagram since you're rewiring and have a relay.
***Note that in our system, ground being switched, you would connect 12v power to pin 85 rather than ground.
Pin 30: fused link to battery 12v pos. This is what gets juice to the horns through the relay.
Pin 85: to constant 12v pos. power source if you want your horn available at all times. Note that pin 85 is only to power the relay itself. Fusing this link would be fine but unnecessary.
Pin 86: gets switched
Pin 87: 12v pos. "out" to the horns.
If you have a good ground, you can ground the horns locally, otherwise wire them directly to the battery neg. post.
