Horn Info Needed from Experts

[thedon051586]

okay so this is my issue with my 1997 awd mounty, guys. when i got the truck the cruise control buttons were demolished and not functional, typical of the old fords, i know. but functional horn, fuse, and relay. so i, in the essence of aesthetics just removed the hideous switches from the steering wheel. in the correct fashion might i add. unhooking battery cables, pressing brake pedal, waiting 10 minutes or so. that whole deal. then removed air bag and disconnected switches, and put it all back together. now i have no horn. i want to know how to fix the horn without putting new buttons back in. and without having a ghetto auxilliary horn button on the dash as ive seen numerous times. i dont care about cruise control, i never use that crap anyway, just want my horn back so i can pass inspection. does anyone know which wire needs to be isolated from the cruise control harness or clockspring to enable the horn to work again? under my assumption, the horn power is run thru the cruise control buttons and then on to the horn switch, which is grounded when horn is pressed. please give your expert opinions all! ive searched the forum but everybody says buy new switches. well no thank you, theres got to be a cheaper way aroound this simple issue. i only ask because im not too keen on poking around the clockspring terminals with battery and power on. so if anyone has info it would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Rick]

Bump...

 

[thedon051586]

so basically I'm on my own then? Well my first idea is to remove the airbag and reconnect the battery. and how i figure it is that since the horn works without key on i can isolate the correct cruise control harness wire for the horn and touch it to ground and i should know which wire runs the horn because it will beep. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since the only wires coming thru the clock spring are for airbag and cruise/ horn, and if i only mess with the separate harness coming out for cruise/ horn operation, and as long as key isn't turned on for airbag self test from the module, it shouldn't set a code. Am i making sense or i am just crazy? Well i know I'm crazy, just not crazy enough to spend 100+ on some switches ill never use. Im gonna figure out this beast for all of us no-horners out there.

 

[thedon051586]

I do distinctly remember when i got the truck that the only cruise control switch that had power was the on off switch so i at least know that that side feeds power to the horn

 

[96eb96]

Yeah, you are crazy. Why don't you just goto a junkyard and get the right replacement parts? Can't be much. I would hate to drive around with hacked up airbag/clockspring wires. WHat you are trying to do sounds dangerous, so that is the disclaimer.

My wiring diagram shows that the horn comes thru a Yellow/LightGreen wire, enters the clock spring and connects to the horn switch and grounds thru a black/white wire . Proceed at your own risk, make sure you are aware of both airbags.

 

[thedon051586]

and the most unhelpful person to ever post on a forum award goes to.......96eb96, congratulations.

got it licked everyone! with no hacking, no airbag deployment, no buying of new switches! okay so here it is, how to get your horn back and be rid of those hideous damaged cruise control buttons!! looking at the right side switch, which would be the resume/set/accel/cruise switch. you have a connector with 6 wires going in and then an offset 5 wire harness coming out of that connector and going over to the left side switches, which would be the on/off switches. i say offset because this is really a 7 wire connector but only 5 wires. so one side of the right connector has wires that are towards the top and the other side of the right connector the wires are towards the bottom. top wire is your horn power that runs from the right side switch to the horn cage. wire directly below that is going to be a null and void wire (it looks like there may have been a wire connected at some point but there wasnt). then the wire below that is a 12 volt - hot at all times wire. thats right!! where the horn power comes from!!. so counting from the bottom of the 7 hole/ 5 wire connector would be the fifth wire up will be your hot at all times horn power. simply take a paperclip (i cut mine down and made a small jumper so there wasnt a whole huge paperclip inside my steering wheel) and jump from the fifth wire from the bottom into the connector at the top where the wire goes to the horn cage and voila! you have a horn!! now button that sucker up and toot your horn at every hot chick and all the jerks who wrong you on the highway. you know because you can now and all. Hallelujah!!