Horn rod moves with steering wheel

walkerlakeprinter

walkerlakeprinter

Senior Member
I have everything back together on my 7-tooth steering shaft, and the light/horn rod works just fine until I attach the spider at the bottom. I have seen on other threads that there is a thin light rod bushing that is supposed to fit in the tube to space the rod away from the steering wheel.



Photo one shows the end of the tube where the rod comes out.....and it is a snug fit and I don't know how a bushing could fit. Would I have to sand down the end of the tube below the horn button? Or would a less stiff spring at the bottom help? The other photo shows the bushing in a catalog.



The fun continues!
 

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I had that happen once. If the column is not pulled down, meaning steering box unbolted, the rod kinks. Then when you turn the wheel the switch catches. I had to pull mine out, and work the kink out of it, dress it with a file, and then emeroy cloth. Put it back together, then attach the steering box. Problem solved. Just my experience with a seven-tooth.
 
My horn rod is brand new and perfectly straight. Everything works perfectly until I compress the spring and slip the clip on the shaft to hold the spider on. That apparently pulls the top of the shaft tightly to the horn button assembly and it then turns with the steering wheel. Maybe when I attach the light switch and wire loom it will work ok. The one I have on my car right now works fine, except for the fact that there is 5-6 inches of slack at the wheel before the pitman arm moves. The
worm and sector are no doubt worn out.
 
That bushing fixed the problem on a car I worked on about 20 years ago.
Do what you must to make the bushing fit where it belongs.
 
Fyi, the steering wheel nut gets cranked on hard over the years and distorts the top 1" of the steering shaft. Aka horn rod hole gets just a hair smaller. I want to say run a 3/8" drill bit (or whatever the horn rod diameter is and maybe the next size up in decimal which may be a letter bit or metric) down it to clean it back round. Then slip your bushing and rod back in with just a hair bit of grease around the rod where it touches the bushing. Rainmaker Ron taught me that one as i/we had to do it on my shaft
 
I think the problem is this: the steering wheel hub did not seat down on the steering column far enough. The horn tube did not stick out past the steering wheel nut. Should I clean up the splines so that the wheel will go on farther? On my coupe with the current steering column, the wheel is only a tiny distance from the top of the column.
 
No paint or goo that I can see. I am going to use a small file to clean up the splines and go from there. I put some "never-sieze" on them when I had it on, so it was pretty easy to tap it off with my hammer. Too hot to work on it this afternoon....close to 100 in my garage.
 
I think I have it fixed. Everything is back together and the light switch does not move when I turn the wheel. Thanks for all the good ideas. Model A people are the best!
 
I drilled out the first inch of the light tube, got the steering wheel a little farther down, and used a little emery cloth on the last inch of the horn rod, put a little grease there, and put on the brass bushing. So....it's all together and working. We'll see how it works once I swap this steering setup with the one that is in my car. My current 7-tooth in the car leaves about 6 inches of play at the steering wheel! That will be the next rebuild project.
 
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