[RatPin]

I've installed an Ididit universal column in my project truck but I'm not getting any ground contact for the horns to work. On the ididit site it says:

"Does my column need a ground?

Yes, the horn requires a ground to work. Normally the under dash or floor mount will provide an adequate ground. This is not always true on a fiberglass car however. In that case, you can run a ground wire to one of your mounts to secure a grounding connection."

When they say run a ground wire to one of you mounts, where exactly would the other end of that wire attach to? The outer column body itself? Seems like the smart thing to do would have been to run a ground lead into the ididit harness for this scenario. That way you could bring a ground in through the plug and keep things cleaner around the column. Do I need to actually dril a screw into the column body now to bring the ground in?

[EOD Guy]

Try this..... hook a ground wire to any solid ground..... touch the other end of the wire to one of the column mounting bolts, if the horn works then that will work as a ground point.......If it doesn't, scrap the paint off the very end (edge)of the column (down by the floor board) touch the wire there etc..... if it works then, yes you'll have to mechanicly attach a ground wire.

[Cape Cod Bob]

It would seem that your steering column is isolated from ground. Maybe due to painted surfaces. Anyhow, you must make a continuos electrical circuit from the steering column to the negative side of the battery. This can consist of the column to body , body to frame, frame to neg. of battery thru the cable. The previuos poster suggested attaching a wire to the column as you did then attach the other end to the grounded floor board and keep it tucked out of sight.

[RatPin]

Yes, I have a gang ground under my dash that I use for my instruments. I can attach it there but will just have to figure where/how to attach it to the column body. It just seems like the "smart" way for ididit to build these would have been an extra port plug in the harness. It would have been quite simple and saved my from having to scrape paint off of my $400 column so I can drill a hole in it to have an ugly wire running off of it. It doesn't make sense.

[Cape Cod Bob]

Can u scrape the paint off under the cloumn drop ?

[RatPin]

That's a good idea. I may try to lay a length of bare wire between the column and the drop so when I tighten it down it creates a ground between the two.

[sedanbob]

The black wire in the column wiring harness is for grounding the horn - make sure you have that wired to your grounding block.

[RatPin]

No that black wire actually goes to the horn/relay. The way Ididit has it designed is so ground comes in through the column connection with the chassis and the circuit completes when the horn button is depressed. I wish they would have just used an extra wire to bring the ground in.

[vicrod]

Usually the horn button grounds through a wiper spring or slip ring setup that is designed to maintain contact with the horn button in the steering wheel.
I'm guessing the problem is in horn button assembly.
As a test remove the horn button and, using a jumper, ground the black wire to see if the horn works.

vicrod

[sedanbob]

You are correct - my mistake.

This is from the Ididit website: Does my column need a ground?

Yes, the horn requires a ground to work. Normally the under dash or floor mount will provide an adequate ground. This is not always true on a fiberglass car however. In that case, you can run a ground wire to one of your mounts to secure a grounding connection.