Hi, I have a 85 pickup. There are three issues with the electrcal syatem. First the horn doesn't work, The horn itself works, but not the buttons on the steering wheel. They have poweer into them, but the ground seems to be bad.
Next is the fan doesn't work. The resistor is good, but i just took apart the motor and the brushes look pretty bad, so i am going to replace the brushes and see what happens.
Finally, the windshield washer doesn't work. I haven't looked into that yet.
Does it seem possible that these are interrelated.
Thanks for any help
Ryan

For the horn..

Pull the steering wheel cover off, exposing the electricals behind the two buttons. Clean the contacts there,, and make sure the buttons are indeed making contact at all.

If that doesn't fix it, then there is a wiping contact behind the wheel itself. Basically it is a 'giant washer' shaped thin plate of metal, with a spring loaded probe that makes contact with the 'giant washer' in any turning position of the wheel. If you pull your wheel, this will make sense.

I had to install some actual washers behind the three 'giant washer' screws to stick it out further - the metal probe wasn't making contact,, by about 2mm. Clean this conections as well.


good luck,

Scerb

Likely not related, but we're not hangin over the fender w/you.

Wiper has a fuse; check it.

The contacts for the horn DO wear down; you can replace or shim them. They get a bit of corrosion on them, so check that first. Inspect the checkball wear as mentioned.

You can also hot wire the blower motor directly to 12v to make sure it's okay before you stuff it back under the dash.

Ol' Bessie's just gettin' old, gotta nurse the gal along. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Replacing the brushes in the fan motor is pretty easy:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Blower.shtml#MotorRepair

On the washer pump, you might try popping the motor open. I've revived a few like that that siezed up from rust inside by spinning the rotor in a drill against a scouring pad or emory cloth to clean it up. Then wrap some emory cloth around a dowel and clean out the bore of the motor, drip some good oil into the bushings on each end and it'll usually fire right back up. Also, if it was rust, try and find where the water got in and seal that up.

I'll have to try that horn thing.....mine is out of comission as well.