The horn on my 81 doesn't work. What all do I have to do to have this problem fixed, how much will it cost, and is it a pretty simple job? Thanks

 

yeah mine doesn't work either. supposedly the horns connected to the alarm but the alarms been disconnected because its to sensative. im not sure how to fix it though?

 

Depends on what part of the horn is busted. If it's the horn itself all it is is one bolt and a single wire hook up and a total of ten mins of your time. If it's in the steering column then it's a bit trickier and could take a few hours. You can check your horn by taking wires and applying it directly to the battery. If it blows then your horn works and it's somewhere in the line that's giving you problems.

 

thanks

 

Well the funny part is about the price. If it's the horn then it could cost you 15 - 25 bucks (depending on the cost of the horn) but will only take you 5 - 10 mins. If it's inside the column then it's probably a little metal cylinder with a spring that's about 5 dollars but will take you about 30 mins to a couple of hours depending on. If it's a wiring problem in the steering column it could cost you as much as 50 cents but take hours to trace with a line tester. I would recommend starting at the horn and working your way back since it will get harder and harder to trace as you get into the firewall, dash and lastly, the steering column.

Just be careful with taking it to a mechanic. They charge by the hour and I've known a couple that love electrical problems because they rack up a lot of money with little cost for parts that they can charge a lot for. Just make sure you take it to one that knows electrical and knows what he's doing. A friend of mine took his car recently to a guy who said he could do electrical and they had the car for three days and for 250 bucks. When he got it back and told me what it was doing before he took it to them, I traced the line in about 40 mins and all they added was a butt end splice. If I had done it it would have been done in 45 mins and for the cost of a beer and 10 - 20 cent butt end splice. I told him to take it back and have them justify the 250 bucks for something that was surely not that long to do.

 

Well I unscrewed the steering wheel where the horn button is and only one prong was plugged in, when there was two prongs. I'm pretty sure the wire from the horn didn't make it all the way to the steering column or the previous owner had taken off the dash and lost the wire somewhere in the engine bay or near the column. Should I try to trace the wire?

 

Sounds like yours is a lot different than mine. Mine uses a metal push peg to make contact against metal plates in the steering wheel cover. I have to pull the steering wheel off and get behind the turn signal cam to get to any wiring for my horn. I'll see if it has anything on your year model in my manual and if it does I'll let you know.

 

thanks a lot. do you by any chance know if it could be a blown fuse and which one it would be?