grounding question

[tkgibbs27]

how do you ground the center shaft of the steering column to get the horn working.

[jtdesigns]

take your horn button off and sand it..

[tkgibbs27]

sand what? there's a few things you can sand. we've scrapped at that switch/button end for it to be good and a few other things and it does nothing. my dad and i played around with it for awhile, we got it to work when we touched a wire connected to the steering wheel to anything that was grounded but when we touched the center shaft nothing, so shouldn't there be a ground on it somewhere? we must be missing something, because as far as my dad knows the center shaft should be grounded but it's not.

[jtdesigns]

I would think it grounds through the steering box, shaft.. Weird... I had to remove my horn button, then the three screws that hold the ring on and took a wire wheel to it.

[Drahcir495]

*In my 89, I have a white 3 prong relay up under the drivers side dash - where my missing kick panel is. I found that when it is out, the horn doesn't work ;) . Brought the relay down to Auto Zone and comfirmed it - HTH Rich

[tkgibbs27]

I would think it grounds through the steering box, shaft.. Weird... I had to remove my horn button, then the three screws that hold the ring on and took a wire wheel to it.

 

that's what my dad thought at first, but when he checked to see if the shaft was grounded it wasn't so he checked some other wires and ran a few tests and came to the conclusion that it should be grounded, and we don't have a clue where it grounds at.

 

 

*In my 89, I have a white 3 prong relay up under the drivers side dash - where my missing kick panel is. I found that when it is out, the horn doesn't work ;) . Brought the relay down to Auto Zone and comfirmed it - HTH Rich

 

i have two to the relays, and it doesn't work with either of those, and as far as i know they are good. my dad says the relays aren't the problem, he said the problem is there is no ground to the center shaft.

[Pete M]

I've always assumed it was grounded through its contact with the truck, rather than an actual wire.

[tkgibbs27]

:dunno: wouldn't that just be the outer casing rather than the shaft itself though?

 

we searched and searched for a place to ground it or where it's supposed to be grounded and found nothing. he even checked in the engine bay. we are kind of stumped here as where it should be at. i did find a spot where something should be screwed in but we tried it and nothing. so that wasn't it.

[JeepcoMJ]

do you have a tilt column, and is it loose?

 

it grounds through the first part of the center shaft...there's a universal in there and it doesn't travel through the joint. the first part of the shaft rides on metal surface (bearing???) and grounds out to the column itself.

 

check your bolts to the firewall as well.

[HOrnbrod]

:dunno: wouldn't that just be the outer casing rather than the shaft itself though?

 

we searched and searched for a place to ground it or where it's supposed to be grounded and found nothing. he even checked in the engine bay. we are kind of stumped here as where it should be at. i did find a spot where something should be screwed in but we tried it and nothing. so that wasn't it.

 

This should be impossible. The upper steering shaft is mechanically coupled to the lower shaft which connects to the steering box which bolts to the unibody. Metal all the way. Unless you don't have ground straps from the neg. post of the battery to the body, chassis, and the engine block, but you would be seeing other problems if this were true. Weird. :dunno:

[maddzz1]

:dunno: wouldn't that just be the outer casing rather than the shaft itself though?

 

we searched and searched for a place to ground it or where it's supposed to be grounded and found nothing. he even checked in the engine bay. we are kind of stumped here as where it should be at. i did find a spot where something should be screwed in but we tried it and nothing. so that wasn't it.

 

This should be impossible. The upper steering shaft is mechanically coupled to the lower shaft which connects to the steering box which bolts to the unibody. Metal all the way. Unless you don't have ground straps from the neg. post of the battery to the body, chassis, and the engine block, but you would be seeing other problems if this were true. Weird. :dunno:

 

Hornbrod, chico mentioned getting a negative wire with 3 wires. My negative from the battery only has the one main cable. Should i replace it with one with the main negative and the 2 smaller ones? where do the 2 smaller mount too? sorry for the hi-jack but i figured it was related

[jtdesigns]

did you check the actual ground at the horn? Like in the front bumper,, the part that makes the sound. I know the horn itself has to be grounded to work.. could be lose and rusty..

[HOrnbrod]

my dad and i played around with it for awhile, we got it to work when we touched a wire connected to the steering wheel to anything that was grounded but when we touched the center shaft nothing, so shouldn't there be a ground on it somewhere?

 

did you check the actual ground at the horn? Like in the front bumper,, the part that makes the sound. I know the horn itself has to be grounded to work.. could be lose and rusty..

 

I figured that when he said "we got it to work" the horn sounded? Maybe I figured wrong.

[tkgibbs27]

we tested the wires from the horn and nothing was wrong there. we have done test groundings and the horn works fine, but the center shaft isn't grounded like it should be. if we can get the center shaft grounded the horn will work then. we got that far, but we just don't know where to ground it at.

[HOrnbrod]

Hornbrod, chico mentioned getting a negative wire with 3 wires. My negative from the battery only has the one main cable. Should i replace it with one with the main negative and the 2 smaller ones? where do the 2 smaller mount too? sorry for the hi-jack but i figured it was related

 

The negative leads should be in a triangle loop configuration; the neg post to a bellhousing bolt (grounds the engine), head bolt stud to the firewall (grounds the body), and the neg post to the fenderwell (completes the ground loop.) This way if any of the connections open up (except the battery negative terminal of course), the neg terminal will still common to the engine and body. Jon Kelly sells custom made leads for our rigs, great product and well worth the $$.

 

http://www.geocities.com/JeepI6Power/price.html

[tkgibbs27]

we got it figured out. the ground isn't making it through the u-joint closest to the inside, it's fine up until then. so we devised up a solution. drill tiny little holes and connect a wire to each side making a bridge across the u-joint.

[mfpdm]

So interesting enough, I read this thread last night and since I'm going to get the truck inspected today, I tried the horn this morning and it didn't work. :headpop:

 

I went through most of the things listed above and it still didn't work. :hateputers:

 

Just for laughs, I turned on the ignition and low and behold the horn worked. :clapping:

 

It's 100 degrees outside and I screwed with this for about an hour. I'm about 10 lbs lighter and two shades of red darker. :oops:

 

So question is, is this normal for the horn to only work with the ignition switch on or is there something fubared with this MJ?

 

:cheers:

[HOrnbrod]

On my 91 battery voltage is applied at all times to the horn relay thru a fuse. The horn blows w. the key OFF. Don't know about the earlier years.

[HOrnbrod]

we got it figured out. the ground isn't making it through the u-joint closest to the inside, it's fine up until then. so we devised up a solution. drill tiny little holes and connect a wire to each side making a bridge across the u-joint.

 

Strange. What do you have there, a rubber u-joint? :eek:

[tkgibbs27]

i don't know. my dad was talking about bearings being bad with conductivity so if the ground has to travel through those bearings, the charge will be weak because it has to travel through the grease/oil and the ball bearings only touch metal to metal with a very small area. so there could be too much grease in areas that it's touching or should be touching.

[ejndssn]

So question is, is this normal for the horn to only work with the ignition switch on or is there something fubared with this MJ?

 

Just to let you my 89 does the same and i thought that it was norm for the MJ

[comancheman]

x2 on an 89

[JeepcoMJ]

90 and older horn is off when comanche is off unless they have the proper module.

I've had

3 86's

4 1987's

my 1988

my bro's 1988

dad's 1986

an 1989

a 1990

 

and on all of them the horn only works with the ignition on. (yes, all of those were MJ's and most of them are either sold off, or were parts and not worth fixing...stupid salt and rust)

 

add on the two 86 xj's and 90 xj which all did it as well. the horn worked when key off on the 95 xj and the 94 xj but not sure about the 93.

[james750]

ok. not meaning to hijack but this seams relevant. my horn hasnt worked since i got the truck and after almost getting into an accident yesterday i decided it was time to fix it.

 

q1: is a wire supposed to run from the horn button (post comes out of buttion and goes nowhere)?

 

q2: what is the first step in fixing this (keep in mind i have no clue when it comes to electrical)?

[JeepcoMJ]

no wires connect to the steering wheel...just the "post"

 

answer to Q2 is

 

check fuse/relay (idk where it is...)

 

then test horn...applying a 12v+ wire to it's connector will suffice.

 

the first one will see if it's just a minor issue, second test will test the horn.