Originally Posted by Livemeyer
Today, with the help of my smart son (this is a father-son project anyway) I figured out my horn relay issue which had started with me being a doofus and screwing it up in the first place.
A while back, I purchased a classic horn relay, mounted it on the firewall, ran a 12+ to the B terminal, connected the wire going to the horn to the H terminal, and ran a wire from the S terminal to a switch in the cab (no wire to the steering wheel horn button, so this is a temporary next best option) and ran a wire from chassis ground to the other side of the switch. After much consternation, I had left it wired with the two horn wires (H and S) on the same terminal, as it was the only way it would make the horn sound. I thought, I must have fried something on the relay, so I'll leave it this way for now (big clue here, folks...)
Couple days ago I got a box with some stuff from Advance Auto, one of which was a new BWD horn relay. Swapped out the two relays and... nothing. Still behaves the same way. I was so focused on this relay, until my son came out to have a look (he's 18, just graduated HS). I said, here, look, when I pull the switch I hear the relay click but no horn sound. He has his head in the cab, and he hears the click. So he goes out to the firewall and says to do it again. He says he doesn't hear the relay click outside, just in the cab.
Suddenly, the light bulb goes on! Aha! I had him look/feel around under the dash and we find that the clicking noise is coming from the fuse box. Now, keep in mind this is an entirely new wiring kit I had just recently installed. I didn't realize that tucked between the hazard flasher and the turn signal flasher was - tada! - a horn relay!
I had installed a horn relay in-line between the horn relay and the horn, without even knowing! LOL! No wonder it worked when the S wire and the H wire were on the same post! So now... the horn relay that I had installed has been removed. The 12v+ hot lead has been removed. The original horn wire lead I had cut to wire into the horn relay has been butted back together, and the horn lives.
Sometimes you gotta get a second person looking at it from a fresh perspective...
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