I'm currently in the process of installing a 4 spoke steering wheel (with all the required and correct extras) on my '72: Supreme, and so far so good, but ran into a couple snags.

I have an OEM horn contact but when I put the horn ring on to the hub, the pin in the contact is too long and won't let the ring sit all the way down on the hub because the tab on the horn ring pushes the pin all the way down, and the pin bottoms out.

Also, when I was "test fitting" the horn ring, I bumped the steering shaft with the metal part of the ring, and the ring was also touching the pin in the contact, and this caused the horn to beep. My logic (and I could be wrong) is that the horn should only beep when the pin is depressed...am I right? Or did I cause a short to ground when I bumped the steering shaft, and it wouldn't matter if the pin was depressed or not?

 

No, you are not. Pressing the horn button does not compress the spring further. The spring is only there to make up for manufacturing tolerances. The horn contact ring is what moves when you press on the button.

As for the pin being too long, you do have the spring in the hole first, then the pin long end down, correct? There should be plenty of "give" in the spring to allow the tab on the horn contact ring to fully seat. How about a photo of what you have so we aren't guessing?

 

First question: are the wheels straight ahead in that photo? If they are, either the steering shaft is incorrectly aligned or the front end alignment is incorrect. The horn contact pin should be up when the wheels are straight ahead.
Second, show a photo of the contact ring in place.

 

I've got it all back together and everything works as it should 👍. Does it really matter if the pin is up or down?

 

The pin location also indicates where the cancel cam turns off the turn signals when you turn the wheel. If your turn signals don't cancel on certain turns, this is why.

 

Ok..I'll check when I take it out again. I do know the left signal works fine, and I also know that the pin was in the same position before and all was good with the turn signals.

 

Isn’t this alignment mark on the steering shaft suppose to be at the 12 o’clock position? And doesn’t that normally put the horn contact at around the 9-10 o’clock position?

I ask this because I took the steering wheel off and replaced the lock cylinder on my car last year for painting and detailing. When I reassemble the column back into the car, the steering wheel was slightly off to the right. I don’t think the retaining bolt at the rag joint will go in if it’s off a spline, the column went back in with the shaft mark point up, and there is no position for the wheel to screw onto the wheel hub.

That’s on my to-do list this winter. I decided once I got the car back together in the spring I’m not messing with it again. Summer goes by too fast, I didn’t want to take it back apart. I figure when I do tear it apart again, some other crisis will take what little free time I have.