I have a 2001 6 cyl 4.0 SOHC Ford Ranger, recently I was having electrical troubles, the car had to be jumped twice in the same day, the second jump failed, and there was a strange clicking noise unless I pulled the number 23 fuse. I changed the battery leads as they were quite corroded and without a jump, the car started fine. I thought I was in the clear (this all happened the day I thought I was going to move for work - classic murphy's law) but then the horn started going off in sporadic short bursts whenever the wheel was turned more than about 5 degrees from center. I've searched the Ranger forums and there was an article about a different problem (but closest match to this one) which mentioned a clock spring, is that the culprit, is this an electrical short? What do you guys think is wrong, I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to diagnosing auto repairs, if I know whats wrong I can replace it, but I'm out of my depth here.

 

I'm going to go with the clock spring as the culprit but maybe somebody else will chime in as well.

 

Could be clock spring but usually when its broken you get an airbag light as well. Id check the wiring behind the airbag for chafed spots if its shorting it can drain the battery over time and cause the horn to sound when turned because the wires move and there is lots of metal in there to ground out on. Its pretty easy first pull the positive battery cable and touch it to the negative terminal to discharge any current then let it sit unplugged for 30 mins at least to discharge the airbags they have a backup of 30 mins in case the battery is damaged in an accident. Then there are two plastic caps on either side of the steering wheel remove the caps carefully and don't damage them then carefully remove the bolts underneath the cap and carefully pull the airbag module straight out. It can handle a little bit of shock but don't drop it or damage the wiring once its out it comes off with a quick connect plug and you will be able to see the horn components and wring as well as the clock spring and you can check for any damage.

 

I know the airbag doesn't work, last two collisions - nothing! The Vietnamese gal I'm shacking with is the world's worst Asian woman driver. I took the airbag/horn sensor off as directed and this completely eliminates the noise. The wiring for the cruise control looks bad but the two wires going to the horn both look good. Does this help narrow the diagnosis? She had to run to work so this is as far as I could get for now. I'll inspect the clock spring when she returns, I'm going to need to acquire starred bits to get at it.

 

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closksprinf is probably ok if you don't have an airbag light on the clock spring is fine. Id check alignment of the airbag itself when i put mine back in if its not centered it can contact the horn circuit causing random horn beeps but from the pics the wiring looks ok.