I have never had a horn so today id like to figure it out why. I found a red/black wire its connevted to bwhind my dash. The end of it has been disconnected. So that xplains why its not working. I tried plugging it into the horn relay under the hood. It turns on now but it sounds like an alarm or siren not an alarm. Any suggestions?

 

It sounds it's possible either rerouted the horn wiring or replaced the horn.

I believe the wiring goes straight from the junction box/horn relay to the horn so I'd check out the horn. Disconnect it and power it directly to test to ensure your getting the sound you'd expect.

Horn is installed behind the opening of the grill on the passenger side.

 

basically i just took the end that wasnt connected cut it and wired it into the relay so it works with the steering wheel and took the ground to the frame. it works, it just sounds like the alarm that goes off when someone breaks into your car. the end of the horn, the previous owner must of bought a aftermarket alarm system for it because i found a black box it shoudl be plugged into and a red light. i took it out because it wasnt working anyways. i never heard the alarm on my car

 

There maybe a difference in the wiring depending on whether or not you have the factory alarm system. The 2001 ETM shows with Power Options (Power windows, locks, alarm) the horn is controlled by the Central Security Module rather than a relay.

The 99 owners manual does not differentiate between the two. It only makes reference to a relay and fuse in the power distribution box under hood. Given this, I’d have to guess the ground leg of the relay coil is routed through the firewall and up the column to the horn button to ground.

As zx6rrdan suggests, you can disconnect the horn and run a jumper from the battery to it and see if it has the proper tones (note, it may be a 2 tone horn with 2 separate power connectors).

 

thats also possible. i think it is a 2 tone horn. but there is only 2 wires that come out of it and i assume one i sower and one is ground. and my truck i believe didnt have a factory alarm. its power nothing. no locks or windows.
unless the second wire is not ground and its the other tone?

 

Both of those terminals are for power, one being the high tone and the other low tone. The horn grounds through the mounting bolt.

 

oh then that explains it. cuz i had to try all terminals in the relay before i found the right one and i grounded the other so some of the terminals just set the horn off. ill switch the wires and see what it does. i hope its that easy.

 

Just for clarification, there will only be one wire from the relay to the horn at the front grill. However, where the wire breaks out of the harness it splits to feed each terminal separately.

At the relay socket two of the terminals should be hot, one will be open circuit until you push the horn button at which time it be grounded. The other will terminal will go to the horn.

If you take a test light and connect the clip to ground and probe the socket terminals you should see 2 with power. If you connect the test light clip to the Battery positive terminal and then probe the other 2 terminals, one may light up and you may hear the horn grown. The other will not show anything until you have someone push the horn button on the steering wheel.

 

right-i have 2 wires that come from the horn. a red and a black/red one. that goes thru the firewall and into the cab where it was disconnected. i basically cut both wires, stripped them, plugged one into the relay **** and forced the relay onit it so it makes connection tight, and the other i connected to the frame (thinking it was ground). tomoro i will switch the wires and the one that i assume makes the alarm tone, i will just cap off.

this sound right?

 

Start at the Power Distribution Box under hood and remove the horn relay. Connect a test light clip to ground. Insert the probe end into the 4 terminals of the relay socket one at a time. You should find 2 terminals that are hot and cause the test light to light up.

Next connect the test light clip to the battery positive terminal. Probe the other 2 terminals of the relay socket. One may light dimly and you may hear the horn grown slightly. The other terminal should not cause the test light to light up at all. Leaving the test light still in this terminal have someone push the horn button on the steering wheel and hold it. The test light should now light up.

Next with the horns plugged up connect a jumper from the battery positive terminal to the terminal that light up dimly and heard the horn grown. You should now hear the horns blare.

If you don't have a test light use a volt meter set to 12 volts and probe all 4 terminals checking for power at the relay socket. Next set the meter to OHMs and connect one probe to ground and the other end to the 2 other terminals. One will should show somewhere between 5-100 ohms. This should be the terminal going to the horn. The other will show Open until someone pushes the horn button.

If this checks out, I’d suspect the relay is bad and just needs to be replaced.

 

i dont suspect the relay would be bad since only one terminal i can plug the wire into that will work when i press the horn-all other terminal slots make the horn go off constantly.

i think the question is now is, if what all we said is true, which terminal should the "alarm tone" go into, if one at all?

 

Kris,

Since you found an aftermarket alarm system in your truck that appears to have been disabled, I’d recommend not worrying about the cut wire you found under the dash at this time. What needs to be determined is whether the factory horn system is still functional and if not where the problem lies.

The information I posted above will determine the following:

1. If the wiring between the relay socket and horn button is still intact and functional.

2. If there is power to both terminals at the relay socket.

3. If the wiring between the relay socket and horn as well as the horns themselves are functional.

4. Whether the problem lies with the relay or elsewhere.

If you want to try a shortcut you could just pull a known good relay and plug it into the horns relay socket and give it a try. However, if that does not correct the problem you'll still need to run through the tests to determine where the problem lies.

 

yea i believe it was an alarm system...it had a wire going to the door, a wire to a red light up by the dimmer, and another wire with some metal piece on the end ( no clue what it was) the black box was velcroed in and duck taped. it had a wire that went to a thick power yellow wire and then the connection for the horn. it was in the way of my abs kill switch wiring so i took it out. since the horn didnt work anyways, i figure id try and cut the wires to the horn and try and hook them up to the relay and see if i could get it to work. i think the relay works good, i just got the wrong tone wire hooked up to the terminal that is connected to the steering wheel horn button. im thinkin if i switch the two wires, ill get the right tone. when i press on the horn i get the alarm, so the horn works, the button works, and i think the relay works. jus the connections are not correct. i think whoever hooked up the aftermarket alarm did a hack job

the cut wire i found under the dash goes right to the horn. (prob why it doesnt work lol)

 

Kris,

Here is the electrical diagram for the 1999 ford ranger horn circuit.

 

thank you. you didnt have to do that....

in the diagram there isnt even a black and red wire-its gotta be aftermarket then for sure.

 

NP, sometimes pictures speak a thousand words.

I believe its part of that old alarm system.

Also, you made reference to a large yellow power wire.. If its coming from the steering column, be careful, as those tend to be part of the Airbag system. The dealer I got mine from installed one of those edge card keys you had to plug in to start the truck and the tech cut into the airbag power feed. When I went to pull it out and install my own system I couldn't believe they tapped it for power.

 

im not 100 percent sure. it looked pretty thick and it went into another black box. i left that alone. all the wire came down and came to one single plug in and that plugged into that black mystery box. i basically just unplugged it. but looked like that yellow wire is where it was getting its main power from. it was tapped into it with a fuse in between. i gotta get some pics up

 

As you can see from the diagram, if you remove the relay and then apply a 12V power jumper directly to relay socket terminal 3 (as shown) it should make your factory horn(s) blare.

Also, if you hook the test light with the clip to the battery positive terminal and the probe to relay socket terminal 2 and then push and hold the horn button the light should light up (or using a voltmeter set to OHMs with one end to chassis ground and the other end pushed into terminal 2 and push the horn button you should read continuity). This will tell you whether those legs of the circuit are good or if you need to dig further.

 

i just took the thing out...i think its broke. but i did take some pictures.

 

Kris,

That's all part of an aftermarket alarm system including the horn.

You can just tape off those connectors and abandon then in place.

 

Thats what i figured too. I took it all out. Ill get a horn one of these days.

 

Try jumping power from your battery to relay socket terminal #3 (Dark Blue wire) that goes to the factory horns and see if they honk. If so, you just need to follow through with the rest of the tests I recommended to locate where the problem lies.

If they don't honk, look up through and around the grill and down between the radiator support to see if you can locate them.

 

Rev, you have been very helpful. Props to you.

 

Oh yaa props i forget u can do that. But yes u have been rllly helpful

 

No problem...That's what Ranger Forums is all about :