horn pad wiring questions

[tmcalavy]

I got a nice black two spoke wheel off of a 79 and it fits right on the shaft of my 69 F250 column. I was getting real tired of the old wheel dragging on my legs and belly and catching in my shirts, so the smaller 15 inch wheel is great. Got a question about the wires behind the horn pad...there are two black wires with spade terminals on the back of the horn pad, and two spade terminals on the wheel hub. I plugged the right wire to the right terminal and left wire to left terminal and screwed the horn pad down, but have no horn. The little horn plug/button in the turn signal housing is there and is making contact with the back of the steering wheel, and the horn will blast if I stick a small screw driver in the gap and ground the horn plug/button, but the horn won't sound when I press the buttons on either end of the horn pad. Where is the pad supposed to contact the metal bar/frame in the wheel? Out at the ends?
Or is the 79 horn pad and wiring different? I'll try to post up some pix tomorrow...we've got a browner here in W. Tejas today and it's too nasty/gritty to go outside.

[basketcase0302]

Your missing the ground to the 79' steering wheel, that's what the two contacts are for, (and why it works via the screwdriver-it's grounding the wheel). This picture of a 79' column might better explain:

I'm not real sure how you could wire a ground to the 79' wheel via a 69' column.
Maybe someone else could pipe in here that knows how this could be done?

[tmcalavy]

Well rather than try to redesign the 79 steering wheel or rewire the 69's column, I just bolted the 79 wheel in place, slapped on a WallyWorld black Bell wheel cover and used some peel and stick velcro strapping to cover the gap between the 69's column hub and the back of the 79 wheel. Looks nice.
Gotta say I love the smaller 15-inch Ford steering wheel. I can get in and out of the truck with ease and don't have the wheel rubbing my shirt or pants legs when I drive. No real difference in how the truck steers or handles either...its like I'm 16 and slim 'n trim again, way back when the stock wheel didn't drag on my 6'3" 250 pound bod. Oh yeah, I broke down and installed dash horn button on the trim piece that holds the column to the dash...beep, beep! outta my way chump!
Here's some pix of my cab with the new, smaller stock wheel installed:

[cdeal28078]

Looks pretty good. I love the color of your interior.
clint

[tmcalavy]

Yeah, it's nice...what I call turquoise, but that's not what Ford called it. The exterior was two-tone turquoise and white, but a PO had it painted a dark royal blue...which looks pretty snazzy when it is cleaned and waxed. Hope to one day put it back to original...but not for awhile.

[cdeal28078]

The paint name for mine is Swiss Aqua. I had mine repainted years ago and painted it myself 13 years ago so it is not an exact match to the original but I still like it. It is an unusual color and gets a lot of comments
clint

[Hawkrod]

The 78 and newer wheels are designed for two horn contacts while the earlier ones (except mid 70's cruise control ones) use a single horn contact. You can make it work by figuring out which ring the contact is hitting and then grounding the other one but it probably won't last long because the rings are not in the same location and the later wheel will chew up the horn contact pretty quickly because it pushes it sideways and grinds off the side (ask me how I know! LOL). Hawkrod