Morris Minor Owners Club

i have the MOT next month, this means i must fix my horn!
last month the horn stopped wokring, on removing the horn push it appeared that the wire that makes the contact to the back of the horn push had fallen off, at the steering column end. is there anyway i can get inside there to reattach it or do have to buy the complete assembly?
also, how would an MOT tester feel about a horn push which isnt located on the steering wheel?

Thanks
Andrew

The horn switch can be anywhere the driver can reach it - but it must be marked to show what it does.

yeah on my peugeot its located on the indicator stalk, can be any where really, just put some huge train horns on it

for monas first MOT I couldnt find the little plastic boss for the horn push, so I cut an old piece of Corsa B arch extention, heated and bent it into an angle, then used an existing screw under the dash and fitted a large push button on it (not marked)
This passed.

In contrast I used another station the year after and they were going to faill the car because the headlight switch didnt work (he didnt know you had to twist it) and because there was no main beam (he didnt know about floor mounted dip switches) and a host of other things!

They also insisted that "I stayed inside the yellow box" and didnt go anywhere near a ramp!
(I know its the law, but I know from previous experiance that the rules can accomodate sensible exceptions)

After the test the boss came over and basically explained that I shouldnt take it back next year because they arn`t used to old cars so it would be the same hasle all over again

Mines a toggle switch under the dash, plain and unmarked... passed no problems.

great, so now i know if i cant fix it i can get around it, but is there some way i can fix the origional problem?
it seems as though the wire has broken somewhere inside the brass slip ring.

Show us a photo, I'm sure it can be fixed or maybe someone has a part lying around.
Regards
Declan

the wire is hard to replace but by no means is it impossible.

The slip ring comes apart, and when you remeove the plastic 2-piece collar you should be able to see the hole where the wire should come through from the middle of the column shaft.

If you have the bullet from the top end (the piece that the circlip fits into) and the other end should be inside the slip ring - then you can replace the wire inbetween. However it's quite rare for this wire to break - more common is that the slip ring and brush don't make good contact to each other. I had one where the car hadn't been used for 25 years - the slip ring looked fine but actually needed some light emery to clean the surface off.

Don't use a multimeter to test the connection - it's better to use a 20W bulb on some leads. A volt meter will show voltage across a high resistance connection whereas a bulb will only light up if the connection is good, as it needs current to flow.

rayofleamington wrote:Don't use a multimeter to test the connection - it's better to use a 20W bulb on some leads. A volt meter will show voltage across a high resistance connection whereas a bulb will only light up if the connection is good, as it needs current to flow.

That's good advice for a host of car electrical problems. I have a similar bulb with two bullet connectors one on a long wire to earth, use the other to check for supply. As Ray says it finds problems not apparent with a multimeter. I use the same thing only the other way round to test how good the earth connection is.