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After owning 2 Toyota pickups and never having a horn that worked I decided to fix it. If your horn doesn't work and have never tried to fix it before I'll fill you in a little bit. This horn pin rides along a circular plate. Over time the pin wears down the spring pushes the pin back up to keep contact with the plate. Over time you eventually run of rod length and it will no longer work or works on only certain parts of the wheel travel. I tried to fix it once prior a few year's ago but putting a dab of sodder on the horn pin, and though it fixed the issue, it didn't last very long. So I tried another method that I've seen other people do. The .22 caliber bullet trick. My buddy gave me a spent brass found of .22 and I cleaned it up. I cut it in half so it wouldn't bottom out on the pin. And then put it on there. The .22 allows the pin the hit the plate. I'll see how long this lasts. It's working great so far. But I'll probably upgrade the horn to something louder.
22 sitting on the pin
Cleaned up the circular pad.
I also cleaned up the horn contacts on the steering wheel.
To save yourself some time if you are doing this verify with a multimeter prior to putting the wheel back together that you have voltage on either the electrical connector in the center of the wheel of the contacts before tightening everything up. If you don't have voltage that means you need to do some more cleaning, or adjusting of the pin.
Yellowtoytruck
Nice post!
I've been doing a ground up on my 84 and rebuild the front axle, used the same race kit as you. I went with 91 4runner rotors, bigger calipers, dual brake booster and master cylinder, took it all out of a 4runner in the junk yard. Then I bought new calipers and used the junk yard ones for cores.. I had the same problem with steering u-joint hitting the rim of the booster, and I did the same as you did, funny.
I keep the brake backing plates, I had to grind a little off to clear the new and bigger calipers but it all fit with no rubbing.
This must be the normal progression, with my wiring harness in the basement I'm in the process of fixing everything that didn't work. One of them, The Horn! Just last night I was tracing the wires from where the PO cut them off in the front of the radiator to the plug that feeds the steering column. I did find where the wire does go to the plug, (PO didn't hack that) but then I can't seem to get from the plug to the contact on the steering wheel. I will try and take off the steering wheel and do the same as you did. Now to find a .22 bullet casing, I have 9mm and 40s maybe that will work
Anyway thanks for the update,
Hump
Yellowtoytruck
Nice post!
I've been doing a ground up on my 84 and rebuild the front axle, used the same race kit as you. I went with 91 4runner rotors, bigger calipers, dual brake booster and master cylinder, took it all out of a 4runner in the junk yard. Then I bought new calipers and used the junk yard ones for cores.. I had the same problem with steering u-joint hitting the rim of the booster, and I did the same as you did, funny.
I keep the brake backing plates, I had to grind a little off to clear the new and bigger calipers but it all fit with no rubbing.
This must be the normal progression, with my wiring harness in the basement I'm in the process of fixing everything that didn't work. One of them, The Horn! Just last night I was tracing the wires from where the PO cut them off in the front of the radiator to the plug that feeds the steering column. I did find where the wire does go to the plug, (PO didn't hack that) but then I can't seem to get from the plug to the contact on the steering wheel. I will try and take off the steering wheel and do the same as you did. Now to find a .22 bullet casing, I have 9mm and 40s maybe that will work
Anyway thanks for the update,
Hump
Sounds like we used a little different brakes but that's an awesome swap for your truck. And I am glad that I am not the only one that ran into that interference issue. Hopefully you found your issue before you had everything bolted up. I swear I took my master cylinder off about 10 times during all this.
Did you find the green wire with the terminal lug to hook into the wheel circle plate? My pictures don't show that. It pretty much goes from wiring harness to horn pin, horn pin to circular contact plate, contact plate to terminal/terminal lug/wire to horn buttons. You should see the wire when you take the steering wheel nut off. Hope that helps.
And you can't have my bumper..... unless you want the stock one
I also put in a new starter while I was at all of this. Mine had been needing rebuilt for awhile. I ended up decided to upgrade to the higher powered starter. I got the Denso part # 2800166 1.8kw starter for the rigs with the cold star package. It says its only for automatic transmissions but it bolted up fine. Same size as the stock starter. I can already tell it's peppier than the original. I'll rebuild the original and keep it for a spare for now or sell it down the road.
Sounds like we used a little different brakes but that's an awesome swap for your truck. And I am glad that I am not the only one that ran into that interference issue. Hopefully you found your issue before you had everything bolted up. I swear I took my master cylinder off about 10 times during all this.
Did you find the green wire with the terminal lug to hook into the wheel circle plate? My pictures don't show that. It pretty much goes from wiring harness to horn pin, horn pin to circular contact plate, contact plate to terminal/terminal lug/wire to horn buttons. You should see the wire when you take the steering wheel nut off. Hope that helps.
And you can't have my bumper..... unless you want the stock one
I can see inside the steering wheel and it looks like the G-W wire connects from one side of the plate to the other side and mates with a red wire. I haven't taken the wheel off yet, waiting on a wheel puller. But like I said the G-W wire from the front of the truck goes to one of the plugs that feed the steering column Hopefully all I need is a .22 bullet casing. But the way things are going I doubt it......I didn't seem to find a horn relay, do we have one?
Yeah, that interference I found before I did the complete tear down. When I bought the Dual booster I wanted to make sure it was going to fit, good thing I took the time to check it before I ripped everything down. When I saw your post I kinda laughed a bit, saying, hey there's another guy out there having the same problems as me! It's all good........
I really really really want that bumper..........The best price I could find online is $902. Did you buy it or did it come with the truck, curious if you know the model number. I'll just wait till I'm further down the road with my rebuild.
Hump
I haven't taken the wheel off yet, waiting on a wheel puller.
I have a wheel puller but was too lazy to grab it. So I just shook my Steering wheel back and forth and it came off pretty quick. You can always that a try. Or you can go rent one from autozone
I got mine off Amazon because I got free shipping. It was around 950. It’s an ARB 3414090
Well with the steering column not attached it's pretty hard to hold and I needed a puller anyway I just got from from (drum roll...........) Amazon 22 + free shipping with prime, I like prime!!!
Here the bumper, I had a 5% off coupon but it just expired, it also has free shipping. The 5% off would have paid for the tax. Knowing them they will offer it again, I'll just wait https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/arb-de...R-BHWQ-3414090
Like I said just waiting till later on this, or I can find one used
Well, got my $22 wheel puller today from Amazon. I pulled the steering wheel with no problems Put it under pressure and it popped loose.
The circular contact was almost black! I cleaned it up with a little scotch brite and wa la
It's clean again, Now I have to find a .22 shell casing,
I checked the contacts, put a probe from my meter, one on the circular pad and the other on the steel wheel housing and pushed to horn and I got contact.yea.........
I found a plug that fits into the original horn so I'll have to strip the wires and solder the plug into the wire where PO chopped it off.
This I hope will that care of this problem......................................next. .....................
Thanks Cody for the inspiration
Last edited by NYHumpinUtah; 01-24-2019 at 03:13 PM.
I believe it is the Warn M8000. I got it from a guy for 50 bucks about 12 years ago. I couldn’t believe it. Worked fine. He just didn’t want it.
50 bucks?????? You thief............ha ha Man, I never get deals like that.
Do you have an inverter in the truck to power it?
I'm glad I went back and looked at your pics of the steering wheel I missed the part that you took the wheel apart and cleaned the contacts on the wheel. I went back and took mine apart and it was also black and so was the wire connecting to the circular plate. I cleaned it all up and put some dielectric grease on the wire contact. Now when I check with the meter it makes great contact.
Thanks for doing such a good write up.
Hump
Do you have an inverter in the truck to power it?
Hump
I don't have an inverter but I have a control box. It is what is located in the center of my bumper. I am planning on relocating it to under the hood to allow more air to get to the radiator. That control box is where the remote plugs into.
Originally Posted by NYHumpinUtah
I'm glad I went back and looked at your pics of the steering wheel I missed the part that you took the wheel apart and cleaned the contacts on the wheel. I went back and took mine apart and it was also black and so was the wire connecting to the circular plate. I cleaned it all up and put some dielectric grease on the wire contact. Now when I check with the meter it makes great contact.
Thanks for doing such a good write up.
Hump
01-22-2019, 09:31 AM
