Date:         95-10-10 10:44:51 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         (deleted)
Subject:      

>In your 'Grendel, Sunday III' lecture you mentioned replacing the horn wire.
 
>John Muir says 'This wire is hell to replace' or something like that but you
made
>sound super easy.  Care to expand on that?

Replacing the horn wire in the steering column IS fairly easy.  John may have
been referring to dealing with a wire broken at both top & bottom.  You must
remove the old wire and 'fishing' for it can be a real chore.  But once the
wire is out, pulling a new one through the column is a simple task.

If you'll look at the hole on the bottom of the steering column you'll notice
it's smaller than the opening at the top.  If you probe up inside the shaft
from the bottom you'll also discover a lip of some sort.

To replace the horn wire, you pull the new wire through using a length of
bailng wire.  Stretch the wire first to make it reasonable straight then feed
it through FROM THE BOTTOM.  If you feed it from the top you'll have to hunt
for the smaller-diameter opening.  If your wire becomes bent during the hunt,
you'll have to start over with a straighter wire.  But coming up from the
bottom is a simple push-through, once you're past the invisible lip.

Back top-side, bend over a six-inch length of your puller wire.  Strip back
about an inche of the wire you want to pull-though and put the stripped
portion through the bend in the puller-wire, bending the stripped wire back
onto itself.  Use a pair of pliers to flatten the bend in the puller wire to
take a tighter grip on the stripped wire.  This bend must be small enough to
fit through the bottom opening.

Now wrap the whole thing with vinyl electrical tape, starting at the top, so
your spiral overlaps in the proper direction.  Run the tape right on down the
puller wire covering the entire bent-over portion and continuing about an
inch beyond.  Press the tape tight with your fingers when you're finished
wrapping.  Now start it down into the steering column, it should be stiff
enough for you to push the puller-wire all the way in.  Then go back to the
underside and gently pull on the puller-wire.  You'll feel it when it finds
the lip but the vinyl tape will let it slip past.  The tape may catch on the
edges of the small opening.  If it does, pull the wire up to the top again
using the electrical wire you are pulling through, squeeze the tape tighter
and try again.  It should go through quite easily.

It really isn't that tough a job, taking less time to do it than to write
this.  And I type about a hundred words a minute :-)  Typially, replacing a
horn wire should take about fifteen minutes.  I probably took a little longer
than that on Sunday because I had to repair the electrical terminal on the
horn button.

The job can turn in to a nightmare due to simple errors, such as wrapping the
tape from bottom to top.  That exposes the tape-edge to the lip inside the
steering column and is liable to peel the tape off, solidly jamming the
column with a plug of wire and tape.  Or, you an spend hours poking the wire
down from the top, trying to get it to go through the smaller lower hole.

If both ends of the old wire are accessible the job is even easier.  Just
solder your new wire to the old, put a little waterless handcleaner on the
junction to serve as a water-soluable lubricant, and pull the new wire
through.  Takes maybe five minutes.

The general tone of your message made it clear that you thot I was blowing
smoke up your ass.  I'm not.  I'm glad you've found much to admire in John
book.  So have I.  Unfortunately, some of the methods he advocates are
damaging or dangerous, and many are grossly incorrect, an opinion I've
expressed in detail in other postings, some of which are among the 'sermons'
archived elsewhere.  If you find time to read them I'll be happy to expand on
points with which you disagree.

I've made this a general post since horn problems are fairly common.  I think
you'll find the above procedure to be as easy as I say but if you encounter a
particular problem replacing a horn wire please let me know and we can deal
with it privately.

-Bob

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