VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 41 Horn beeps when shifting

My (new to me) 41 SD has the chrome horn ring (assume that was standard). Behind the wheel, kind of floating on the column, is a tin/brass/pot metal ring. It has teeth that look like it is meant to grip the back of the steering wheel. When it floats around and the shift lever moves around...at some point they make contact and the horn beeps. I can jiggle it around and make it stop for a while. The horn ring has obviously been a problem on my car, as there is an auxiliary horn button attached to the column.

Here is a pic of my column. You can see the "brass" ring. I almost think that's in the wrong place and needs to be closer to the chrome horn ring.

Hi Scott,

Your problem is that the previous repair of the horn was not done with the correct parts. The bushing you see which you call a brass ring is not correct for the 41 Special Deluxe horn. You should not be able to see the bushing, nor should it turn or move with the steering wheel. Here is a past post that should give you more basic info on your horn. 41 Master Deluxe horn Yes. it covers the 41 Master Deluxe rather than the Special Deluxe that you have but the components to both systems are very similar. I will post more info this evening. Thanks for the picture it is worth a "thousand words" without it 99% of us would have assumed a wiring short in the steering column. I will post how to remove the steering wheel and horn mechanism so we can sort out if you have other part problems.


Good luck, Mike

P.S. Here is an old post on Removing your steering wheel to repair your horn

Thanks Mike. You, Gene and Charlie have been a great help.

Never introduced myself. Here is my great grandmother's 41 SD. It came to live in our garage when I was a child and sat for 20+ years in various stages of disassembly. My parents finally got around to getting it restored to this state. Since then (15 years) it was minimally driven and sat in my mom's garage in Texas. I had it shipped to me in Delaware last month to enjoy for a few years. I'm working on the few little things that nobody ever bothered to address.
Thanks again for your patience and support.

Click me

The top image is how yours is. All parts can be bought at click me too

Scott,

I edited my above post to provide info on removing your steering wheel to service your horn. Give us a heads up if you need more assistance. Really appreciate seeing your car, your family should be very proud to have it enjoyed by four/five generations of your family. AWESOME!!!

Thanks, MIke

I'm finally getting the courage to tackle this. Sorry for the delay.
Here is what is in place.
Looking at the cup and the glue on it. I see what they did in the previous repair. They glued the bushing to the back of the cup. Oddly, there was no spring anywhere.

I see the pad, insulators/cushion, the spring, and the inner cup (between the ring and the spring) - links below.
https://www.chevsofthe40s.com/detai...ring_Cup_Screws_and_Insulators_Cars.html
https://www.chevsofthe40s.com/shop/...p;searchtype=FT&method=KeywordSearch

I'm not getting this link http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/parts/1929_54/176.htm where it shows two cups (looks like with the same part numbers) on either side of the ring. Is cup nearer the spring actually the same cup as the one that goes on the column?
Also....look at my cup and the lack of contact point. Is that a concern?

And lastly....my steering wheel was not installed when the wheels were straight. Assume it goes at 3oclock and 9oclock and not 12 and 6.

First thing is to take a screwdriver and lay across the brass bushing and touch the steering column (as seen in the last pic) to see if the horn blows. If so all is good from that point to horn.

That 2.819 is a group number, not a part number. You can see it on both pictures of the two types of horns and the all look different.

It has been so long since I did mine I can't remember exactly what all I did. Anyhow, you can see that the bottom cup is threaded and screws into the horn ring. That is how you fine tune the contact. However it appears one of the contacts is missing, and the one that is there is in bad shape, second pic.

The inner cup is the one that comes with the spring in the top link above and the horn pad you need is the $19.99 one in the bottom link. I don't if the contact are available or not. If the horn blows in the test and you get all these parts I believe you will be able to fix it like it should be.

Yes 3 & 9.

Thanks Russell. Parts coming next week. Why do both Co40s and Filling Station have to be out west. Takes forever :(
All the horn wiring should be good (if you look back at the original post). I now get the workaround they did.
I couldn't find those contacts. I'm thinking I might craft something out of some metal laying around and solder it to the cup.

Did I measure this from the right spot to the right spot? Just under 1.5". The manual says it's supposed to be 1.25". I adjust the mast jacket by loosening the bolts where the column attached to the underside of the dash, right? Do I just loosen then adjust/retighten? Or am I oversimplifying? This doesn’t mess with my shifter alignment in any way?

Hi Scott,

Any adjustment of the mast (up or down) affects the transmission linkage which affects the shifting of the transmission. Setting things to the manual specs. while admirable, could result in a lot of frustration getting the transmission linkage just right to make for easy shifting. I think I would leave the mast alone if your car's shifting is good (no grinding of gears, no popping out of gear, etc.) and just see if you can reassemble the horn correctly and get it to work without moving the mast.

You were correct in assuming you need to loosen the dash clamp that supports the mast, but, you also need to loosen the mast clamp at the bottom where it slides over the steering box. Where the mast is clamped to the steering box can be very frustrating to loosen from the box since it can almost rust/freeze in place because of sitting unmoved for so many years.

If you have or do move the mast take a lot of pictures and measurements of the parts you move, and remember to somehow compensate for the distances you moved the parts. Over the years I have had my car (16 years) I have spent hours if not days fine tuning my transmission linkage to get it to manually shift from 1st to 2nd without grinding. I do not have it hooked to vacuum assist, and probably have a few well worn transmission parts that are complicating my problems. Since I live in a community where 90% of the road speeds are 35 MPH or less I don't worry about the speed of shifting. It takes me about 3 to 5 seconds to shift from 1st to 2nd so double clutching or waiting for my synchronizer gear to slow down gears is the way I do things.

Below are some pictures to help decipher your problem, let me know if you need more:

P.S. One thing I have tried to do through the years is only tackle one major problem at a time. While sometimes this doesn't work well usually it does. Horns are frustrating to get to work well as are transmissions, you could end up not being able to drive your car for months if you mix transmission repairs with horn repairs. Pick your poison slowly and continue asking for input.

P.S. #2 I just realized that the picture of my dash mast clamp was before I restored my car. To the right of the mast you will see a horn button attached to the bottom of the dash as well as a Special Deluxe Steering wheel. I know have changed to a Master Deluxe steering wheel with the working horn button in the middle of the steering wheel.

Good luck, Mike

Thanks Mike. I found the lower mast jacket clamp in the shop manual this morning. I'm sad I was right about it affecting my shifting, but glad I got confirmation before I started messing with it.
My horn parts are coming this afternoon, so I'll see how it goes when I get things put together. Maybe I'll get lucky. Now that I think I get how everything fits together and works, I can likely better diagnose what adjustments I need to do.

The key will be making sure both horns are well grounded and in good operating condition.

My work-around horn button works and it works when I short across the shaft/spline. I'm crafting up something to make the other metal contact that mine is missing. Fingers crossed.

Parts in....the cup won't make contact where the mast jacket sits. Bummer. I really don't want to create shifting problems for myself. I'm guessing that what happened to whoever restored my car. Got it driving good and then worried about things like the horn later (resulting in poor workaround)