Jeep TJ Horn Repair - For when the horn sounds on its own or the button is "soft"

Ok! Let me get the warning out of the way:

Standard Internet Warranty Applies - you follow my instructions at your own risk.  Ramblingmoose will not be responsible with any damage you do to your car, your self, or anything else.  If you do not feel comfortable with these instructions, or your capacity to follow them, don't do them. 

OK?

This is written as instruction to my future self because I don't see myself getting rid of the car any time soon and I expect to have to do this again.

I gathered my own process by reading forums and looking at pictures and drawing conclusions.  I will say that there are rarely one set of instructions with repairing my own 23 year old Jeep.  I love the car but little issues are getting tiresome to track down and new parts are getting more scarce.

This is a "hack".  I fixed my horn by flipping the horn button actuator pad and replaced it within my horn button assembly.  I do not expect this to be "permanent" but I do expect it to give me some time. Many parts for the car are "Unobtanium" and you simply can't find "new" any longer.  Dorman makes a lot of fine reproductions of parts, and may be a good source but not for this repair.

The horn button actuator pad is two sheets of metallic material on the back of some sort of plastic.  When you flex them, they make contact and can be tested with a continuity tester. 

Other people's repairs were successful by cutting the sheets apart and putting a bead of silicon around the edges to hold them apart as they were put back into a parallel sheet.  Fortunately I did not have to re-manufacture the actuator (yet) by going that far and if I do, I will document that process later.

To complete this you will need multiple tools. 

8MM Socket.
10MM Socket.
11MM Socket.
Socket wrench driver.
Leatherman style multi-tool, although I only used the knife blade.


1:  Disconnect the battery from the car.  Really.  No.  Do this first.  Don't take a chance.  Let the battery be disconnected for at least 5 minutes before proceeding.  I used an 11MM socket to loosen the terminal, but your size may be different.  This is why I listed three socket sizes above.

2: Remove the horn button cover in the middle of your steering wheel.  There are two bolts holding the cover down.  They are 8MM and readily accessible from behind the sides of your wheel.  Remove the bolts and set them aside.  The entire horn button assembly with the air bag will easily come loose.

3: Disconnect the wires from the horn button assembly and the air bag.  If you did not disconnect the battery, this is why.  Your Air Bag will be very difficult to replace if it blows up in your face.  So will your nose.  DO NOT CUT ANY WIRES.  The air bag is connected by a tan connector that easily snaps off the back of the air bag.  The red positive wire has a spade connector that is covered by a plastic or vinyl sleeve.  Slide the sleeve back and separate the wires at the connector.  Your horn button assembly will now be free for you to take into your work area.

4: Remove the Air Bag from the mounts on the back of the horn button assembly.

• DO NOT CUT ANY WIRES.
• Remove the plastic clip that retains the wire in place.
• The Air Bag is held in place with four 10MM(?) nuts. 
• Save and set them aside. 
• There are two metal mounts that hold the air bag in place.
• Remove the mounts from their slots and set them aside.
• Free (to lift from the mount screw) the ground wire from the back of the air bag mounting plate.
• Bend or flex the vinyl so that you can free the air bag from the horn button assembly.
• Set the Air Bag aside.
  
  
  

5: Free the horn button actuator pad from the plastic shield on the inside of the horn button assembly. 

• The horn button actuator in my TJ is about the same proportions as those in the/some XJ Cherokee. 
• The round version of the horn button actuator is for those cars that have cruise control or automatic transmission.  Or are just older and "different". 
• Your mileage may vary. 
• I had to use my Leatherman's Tool knife blade to trim the rectangular posts to create room to work on the "top" side of the assembly. 
• There was a clear bit of plastic that was welded at the factory under the posts that I had to cut on the top row. 
• This created enough room to work to gently slide the horn button actuator pad out.
• Before reassembling the pad into the assembly, I strongly suggest testing your continuity on the pad with a tester.  This is just enough work to be annoying to have to repeat.
  

6: Flip your horn button actuator pad and reinsert it under the clear plastic window.  In my case, this was enough to get everything working again (for now).  Push the rectangular posts back through the holes in the plastic sheeting to hold everything in place.

7: Replace the Air Bag assembly within the horn button assembly and reverse the steps so that the assembly is SECURELY snapped into the vinyl assembly and then bolted back in place.  Your wires will be reversed for the horn button actuator pad but there will be enough wire for connections to be restored.

8: Reconnect the Air Bag connector on the back of the assembly, and the red wire for the horn button.

9: Place and Bolt in place the horn button assembly with air bag back in the steering wheel. 

10:  Reconnect the battery to the car.  Test the horn.  The hack should have worked and you should have a horn that works now.

11: Resetting the dash gauges.  After reconnecting the battery, my Tachometer was not working.  Closer inspection showed that the needle had dropped below the pin at the Zero RPM point.  To reset the tach, follow these steps.

• Get in the driver's seat and place the key in the ignition.
• Press and hold the trip set reset button.
• Turn the ignition key to accessory.
• The lights will cycle on one after another, and all of the gauges will activate.
• If this does not get your tach to be functional, the following Percussive Maintenance might be needed:  Whack the side of the instrument cluster with the heel of your hand while the tach is cycling.

Seriously, I had to do this and my tach is now working.  This link will show you the process, but not how I managed to hold the button while whacking the cluster.  This was done on the upper left corner of the cluster while the Tach was vibrating during the self-reset.

This is a link to the process that I derived my own process from.  You will notice that the steps are similar.  It is here in case my own steps are not helpful.