Never realized the horn didn't work in my truck until I went to use it this morning and now I'm trying to figure out whats up. Checked fuse #10 and it looks good, swapped relay #7 with the fuel pump one and still no horn. Tested the horn separately and it works just fine. No power coming down to it when I tested with a voltmeter. Don't hear any relay clicking when I push the horn.

I pulled the airbag off and see where the previous owner tucked the ribbon cables away from the removed cruise control buttons. Back when I bought the truck in October they told me cruise hadn't worked in a few months and the buttons broke so they took them off.

Without those controls would the horn not work or should it still work even without the cruise buttons attached?

 

If you ground the Yellow/Lt Green wire at the relay the horn should work. If so, the problem more than likely lies up in the column within the clockspring contacts for the horn.

 

All buttons on the steering wheel including the horn are connected to the vehicle wiring via the clock spring wire.

This is not a spring just a coil of wire that looks like a clock spring on an old windup clock.

I would imagine this is why the Cruise stopped working, so if possible get some new buttons so you can fix cruise and horn at the same time.

This video is for full size Ford Trucks but Ranger will be similar:

 

I found a yellow/green wire going to the #7 relay and tried grounding it out but no noise from the horn.

 

Verify you have power on both sides of fuse #10 in the Power Distribution Box. Next pull the horn relay and verify you have power at the Yellow Lt blue wire (Term 1 and 5) of the relay socket. If power is available at these two terminals, momentarily jump term 5 to term 3 (Dark blue wire). The horn should work. If not, then there is an open circuit between the relay and horn.

To verify the control side, connect a Ohm meter to term 2 of the socket (Yellow Lt green wire) and the other end to chassis ground. Push the horn switch on the steering wheel. The meter should read continuity. If not, then there is an open circuit between the relay and horn switch to ground

 

Checked for power on the fuse and only one side has power the other had nothing.

Then tried the test you mentioned on the relay and no power on either 1 or 5.

Then tried putting my multimeter to check for resistance and get a reading of 1 on terminal 2 even when pressing on the horn switches.

 

Ok disregard most of that last post. Realized I should be testing for power on the fuse with it in place, which then I have the same voltage reading across both sides.

Then had power on terminals 1 and 5 of the relay and was able to jump 3 and 5 to get the horn to work.

Still get a ohm reading of 1 on terminal 2. So sounds like a broken clockspring maybe? Is there a wire I can test between the clockspring and the relay terminals to make sure that wiring is good?

 

Terminal 2 at the relay socket (yellow/Lt Green wire) runs to the steering column and up through the clockspring to the horn contact switch. When you push the horn pad, it closes the contacts connecting the circuit to chassis ground through the clockspring via a black/white wire running down the column to ground.

Terminal 2 is the ground side of the relay control circuit. Applying a grounded jumper to this terminal with the relay plugged in the horn should sound.

If you’re reading 1 ohm between terminal 2 and chassis ground, regardless whether you push the horn pad, then the circuit is grounded and would be causing the horn to sound continuously.

What you should see is the meter reading infinity (no continuity) until you push the horn pad. Once you push the horn pad, the meter should read around .1 - .2 ohms. But even at 1 ohm, the horn relay should energize and sound the horn.

 

Just tested by grounding terminal 2 with the relay plugged in and the horn worked just fine.

I'm a bit novice to the whole electrical thing so maybe I'm doing the continuity part wrong? This is the meter I'm using.
7 Function Multimeter

I switch it to 200 on the ohms section and it just reads 1 . no matter if the horn switch is depressed or not and even without trying to measure anything. So maybe this meter just reads 1 instead of showing an infinity sign?

BTW, I really appreciate your help on this thus far!

 

Based on your findings I’m willing to put money on the clockspring being the problem as RonD eluded. However, if you’d like to test further, try the following:

1. Disconnect the Battery before proceeding. This is a safety precaution when disconnecting any electrical components involving the air bag system.
2. Pull the relay.
3. Pull the horn pad and disconnect the electrical connectors (note which go to the horn switch’s.
4. Set your meter to ohms and insert one of the probes into terminal #2 of the relay socket. Insert the other probe into the connector from the clockspring that goes to the horn switch’s. You should see a reading of 1 ohm or less.
5. Next pull the probe from the clockspring connector and connect it to a good chassis ground. Meter should read OL or out of limit (what ever it shows when first set to ohms without the probes touching anything). If it still reads 1 ohm or less, you’re going to have to remove the steering wheel and clockspring to test further.

 

Just wanted to come back and thank you again for the help. Got a new clock spring put in last night and the horn works again. Got a used set of cruise control buttons and even they work now too!

 

How’s it going. I recently installed a glowshift rpm tac in my 1999 3.0L XLT Ranger and it works flawlessly but somehow in the mix of things, my steering wheel horn stopped working. However when use the key fob to lock the truck the horn works no problem. I assumed it was a relay so i started there, switching relay #7 from the power distribution box to see if that was the issue. No dice. Through my intense research, I didn't come across something that said theres a fuse in the side fusepannel on the dash (from what i’ve seen on the in the manual and online. I did come across another relay underneath the dash next to the gas pedal but that didn’t work either. I thought i’d check in here before i decide to take apart the steering wheel since i doubt theres a faulty clockspring since cruise control still works. Thank you in advance. Seems once you loose your horn you end up needing it the most lol.

 

In 1999(1998-2000) the horn relay has 12volts all the time
The Fob(RAP module) grounds the horn relay to activate the horn

The two steering wheel switches also ground the horn relay to activate it

But like you said the Ground clockspring wire is shared with Cruise Control, and for BOTH switches in steering wheel to fail at the same time would be long odds

Make sure to deactive Airbag(unhook battery for 15min), before going into steering wheel

Diagram shows horn wiring as well as cruise wiring, NCA = no color assigned, meaning harness was built with what ever wires were lying around, lol

 

Considering the odds of both switches failing at the same time, would it be worth starting there by replacing it or would your recommend starting elsewhere? Thanks for your help thus far Ron!

 

Have you tried both buttons?

If you take the clam shells off the steering column you should have some access to the wires

Yellow/light green stripe wire goes to the Horn Relay, if this wire is GROUNDED horn should come on, I would test that, key does not have to be on
If horn doesn't go off then problem is not in steering wheel/clock spring
If horn does work then problem is in steering wheel/clock spring

Also check the Black/white stripe wire to make sure its a good ground for steering wheel


To test wires use a sewing needle/pin to pierce a wire, it won't damage the wire, then test wire

 

PROBLEMO SOLVED!!! See attached pictures! A whole lot of stress for something quite simple. Broken Ground… As you can see from the pictures, that brown connector with the Yellow harness (for the SRS airbag system) does not unclip. in other words i wasn’t going to risk breaking it for obvious reasons. Nevertheless there was enough wire left in the connector to splice into it a re-attach it to the ground. Took about 45 min (Mostly due to cleaning panels trying not make the problem worse). The ground was extremely worn and fragile. Broke little pieces off every time i tried to splice the new wire in. Fixed horn works perfect!

Thank you Mr. RonD for you help and assistance!!! Really Appreciate It!


Broken ground Wire. (Follow wire from green bolt)

Re-Attached Ground Wire