[Johnny in AZ]

Did a dumb thing a few days ago....I put on a comfortgrip steering wheel on my 69 and I thought I mounted the horn cap properly but it turns out that it was just a smidge off.....so early yesterday AM the horns go off at 6am !!! the heat expanded the cap and caused it to go off...like a dummy I just popped the hood and unhooked the horns real quick...went inside...go distracted by whatever...forgot about the horns...days later I realized that This had happend....battery was deae...of course...went and had it recharged....hooked it all back up ...fixxed horn cap...but now the battery drains after awhile...guy at the auto store said that I might have a bad horn relay, it might be causing the batt to go out..the horns work fine...I am thinking that the bvattery is kaput...but they keep on recharging it saying its good.....any ideas ??

Thanks

John in HOT AZ....116 today....."a dry heat"

[wagonman]

yes your horn relay is energized and draining your batt. you disconnected the horns. but the relay is still energized. fix your problem in your wheel.untill then diconnect the smaller gauge black wire to your horn relay.this is giving the coil a ground thereby completeing the coil circuit.enerigzing the coil.

feel it i will tell you that its hot!!!!

here is a pic i found on this site from a camaro brother

[Johnny in AZ]

I did fixx the problem in the wheel.....now the horns blow properly...but like I said the batt keeps draining....:-(

John

[wagonman]

ok maybe its a bad alt? diodes in them can go bad causing a "leak" of current.
this is easy to check.

charge your batt. disconnect the alt,tape up the wires! check in a day or so to tell if your batt is still charged..

or to speed things up...use your volt meter n check for drains as you disconnect the alt.if that isnt a drain, start takin out fuses while watching your meter. this will tell you which circuit its in.

[Johnny in AZ]

will try that....alt is new...this problem started after horn incident..b4 that everything was fine...mmmmmmm ????


John

[JimM]

if the horn blows properly then your battery drain problem is not the horn relay.
btw, that's my hand!

[wagonman]

jim m... your hand does get around........

who knows where your hand has been..... lol

[Steptoe]

Run a hydrometer test on each cell of the Battery...if the battery is getting out of its garantee period, and having it drained dead flat, its a good possibily it has died.
Either 1 cell will show low or they all will be in the red after a full charge.

[undee72Z]

Originally Posted by Johnny in AZ

will try that....alt is new...this problem started after horn incident..b4 that everything was fine...mmmmmmm ????
John

To test for the drain, disconnect any clocks and radio with memory, with the car off and everything turned off. disconnect a battery cable and connect a test light inline between the cable and the battery, with a drain the light will be lit. You need to make the light go out to find the drain. Disconnect things one at a time till the light goes out. First disconnect the alternator and voltage regulator plug, then fuses at the fuse box. If the test ligh does not light you may have a bad battery. That can happen, with the problem you just had.