Sport Steering conversion HELP

[JayRamb]

Hey there! My TSM isn't helping me out very much on converting my standard steering wheel from my 87 Eagle to a Sport Steering wheel. After removing the steering wheel, there is a wire that is hanging out of the horn ring...there is no pin or spring. The wire was a ground wire. What do I do from here to make my sport steering wheel horn work? Looks complex.

[vangremlin]

Its not all that complex but I don't know if I can describe it from memory and also don't know the proper names for most of the parts.  You do need a spring that goes in a hole on the base of the steering wheel.  There is a circular piece that screws to the steering wheel that holds the "horn button" (the thing that will have a logo on it).  When you push the horn button, the circular thing pushes down and the spring makes contact with parts below it, causing the horn to blow.  Clear as mud???  I'll try to tak some pictures but hopefully you followed what I was saying.

[JayRamb]

You do need a spring that goes in a hole on the base of the steering wheel. 

Do I need a new horn ring? I'm not sure what I should do with the wire...besides shove it up my...never mind...

[vangremlin]

The wire went from the pad on the typical Eagle steering wheel to ground, when you pushed on the pad it completed the circuit.  You won't need the wire, the spring takes its place.  Do you have the circular piece that attaches to the horn, that holds the horn button?

[JayRamb]

Do you have the circular piece that attaches to the horn, that holds the horn button?

I have all the parts, just not the spring and pin for the horn ring. Did you just cut off the wire?

[vangremlin]

In the steering wheels I've looked at, the wire is hard-wired into the pad for a normal Eagle wheel, and the other end is a female spade connector, that you just disconnect.  And I think it just connected to a spot on the steering wheel, so if you pull the wheel it has no place to connect, so it just goes away.  That's what I remember anyway.  I've done a couple of these conversions, but its been a couple years.  If you don't have the spring and the pin, I think you'll be able to get a new spring from home depot and use a small bolt or something in place of the pin.

[vangremlin]

Hey JayRamb,

Did you get your steering wheel swap completed?  I swapped out my steering wheel today and took some pictures if you need 'em!  Here is the finished product - the new steering wheel is from a big Jeep, it is the same color as my interior, so I swapped out another sport steering wheel (that I also got from a big Jeep, it was more of a tan color).  The old one had the traditional elongated ovals, while the new one has one long slot on each spoke.  The horn button was originally in my Gremlin.  I have the one that came with the steering wheel, but I want to modify it so it says "Eagle" in the center.

[eagleman]

JayRamb. Just finished mine after two months of the exact same thing your talking about.I had to laugh after reading this cause its a carbon copy of the same questions I had and could not figure it out.Anyway I went to napa and purchased a horn repair kit for a couple of bucks.Kit consist of a spring and a aluminum thing that looks something like a nail. The factory wire that your referring too is in the tower looking thing which is the cam canceler I believe. Anyway I used a pair of needle nose pliers and the little round end plastic piece is just pressed into this plastic tower and will pull right out along with the factory wire your referring to,Then all you have to do is drop the spring that came with the horn repair kit into the hole that the factory wire was in and file a little off the nail looking thing and drop it into the same hole and your done.Just put your pretty new red wheel back on and you are good to go,Hope all this makes sense its harder to put into words then doing it. After ywo months off driving myself crazy I found it really pretty simple after all.Anyway I believe the horn repair kit number is 83230 and I got it a NAPA. Hope this helps.mine works like a charm.

[vangremlin]

I'll go ahead and post a couple of pictures for future reference. 

Here is what the column looks like without the steering wheel.  Put the steering wheel on first and tighten the nut.  The white tube is where the spring and nail go, and the tube lines up with a hole in the steering wheel.



Here is the spring and nail.  My replacement steering wheel came from a big jeep, and so the spring wasn't the right length, so I stretched it out.



After you put the spring and nail in the white tube, there is a not-quite-flat metal plate that goes on next, with the edges touching and the center out.  It acts like a spring.

Then you put on the thing-a-ma-bob that has three screws with an insulating ring so the screws don't touch the metal.  The notch goes at the top.

 

Put the horn button on and you'll have the finished product shown two posts earlier.

[JayRamb]

JayRamb. Just finished mine after two months of the exact same thing your talking about.I had to laugh after reading this cause its a carbon copy of the same questions I had and could not figure it out.Anyway I went to napa and purchased a horn repair kit for a couple of bucks.Kit consist of a spring and a aluminum thing that looks something like a nail. The factory wire that your referring too is in the tower looking thing which is the cam canceler I believe. Anyway I used a pair of needle nose pliers and the little round end plastic piece is just pressed into this plastic tower and will pull right out along with the factory wire your referring to,Then all you have to do is drop the spring that came with the horn repair kit into the hole that the factory wire was in and file a little off the nail looking thing and drop it into the same hole and your done.Just put your pretty new red wheel back on and you are good to go,Hope all this makes sense its harder to put into words then doing it. After ywo months off driving myself crazy I found it really pretty simple after all.Anyway I believe the horn repair kit number is 83230 and I got it a NAPA. Hope this helps.mine works like a charm.

Thanks man! EGG! Will keep you posted.

[eaglebeek]

Rambler Mentality may be overwhelming me, but what I did was cut off the female spade connector and crimp on an eyelet connector. Then I drilled a small hole to accept a short #8 sheet metal screw into the side of the metal ring into which the center hub snaps in. Then I routed the wire around the outside of the metal ring and secured it with the #8 screw.

VanGremlin's solution is clearly the right way to do it, but mine will get you by if you want it.