1978 eldo horn located in steering wheel outer rim??

[xcaret]

My 78 eldo horn doesnt work , but I think you press on the inside of the outer ring of the steering wheel. Is this correct ?
Neil

[Aaron Hudacky]

The horn in 78 is the pad on the steering wheel spoke.  If it works by squeezing the rim, it'd be a '69 only rim-blow horn.  According to the 1970 Cadillac data book, rim-blow horns were available as an option in 1970, but I've never seen one. 

[TJ Hopland]

Im not sure why but I have never seen a 78 with a working horn.   The issue is somewhere in the wheel or column.  Perhaps it had to do with the new style wheel?  Or maybe some different routing for the wire?   I never tore into it on either of my 78's but when it was very cold something in the circuit would short to ground.  This explained why the horn circuit was cut in 3 different places.  Since the horns themselves were disconnected this also explained why my battery would go dead when it was cold, the horn relay was on. 

[R Schroeder]

Mine works........beep.........beep.

I had my pad off to replace the wood grain around it. It looks like the contacts are inside the pad. Maybe over time the pad gets hard and it doesn't spring back after pushing on it. I believe its more a age problem with the pad than anything else.
Roy

[Walter Youshock]

I recall the '77 and '78's would sometimes start blowing on cold nights by themselves.  As the horn pad froze, it would constrict just enough to set off the horn. 

[TJ Hopland]

Thinking about it now I seem to recall the horn pad(s) on the ones I dealt with did seem at least slightly distorted. 

[joecaristo]

Walter is right. When its very cold outside the plastic pad on the steering wheel would contract and set off the horns. I left my house one night came back and the horns on my 78 were blowing. My neighbor said they were blowing for a while. They were actually smoking! I had to take my pad off the steering wheel and put some cardboard shims between the pad and the contacts. Its also a problem with all the Cadillac models through 77-79 at least.
Joe

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

It was a common problem with the 1977-1978 "pillow style" horn pad. Very sensitive to pressure. Many a freezing night I'd be running outside to pull the horn relay from the fuse block- and always on the absolute coldest of nights. Did it so often I could get it out in 5 seconds flat. lol. Lots of horns met their death that way if someone wasn't around.

*Redesigned pad in 1979 didn't seem to have the issue.

[TJ Hopland]

So his car most likely suffered this problem at some point in its life and the horns either burnt out or were disconnected in some way. 

The 78 Eldo was an oddball, basically was still a 77 electrical wise.  The rest of the cars got the new blade type fuses which I would guess could have also come with an overall different electrical layout and design.   On the regular 78 cars the relay was in the relay block which was above the fuse block basically above your left foot under the dash.   Not sure if this is the case in the Eldo.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Back in the day when we had 77-78s, you'd almost be able to tell which cars were garaged and which weren't by whether the all the horn units were functional. Most of my experience dealt with DeVilles/Broughams. Can't say for certain but I believe the Eldo would've used the same relay as the other cars despite the Eldo continuing to have the older style fuse block.

All I can say is thank God it was a relay and not a fuse which would've been a lot more difficult to extract in a panic.

[R Schroeder]

I would say if it looks pushed in anywhere it may give you a problem. Foam probably shot.
Mine is still soft, and not pushed in . Has not gone off in the winter yet.
Roy

[waterzap]

The steering wheel on my 78 was quite sorry looking, so replaced with a later year wheel. Looks good, and the horn works just fine. Have to press in the middle though, but that’s fine.

[xcaret]

Thanks loads guys , I saw the sort of tinfoil silver stuff on the outer steering wheel and thought it may be the horn ( my 73 New Yorker had it there ) . I badly need a different stering wheel so maybe i'll replace it like water zap did.
Thanks

[TJ Hopland]

The foil was what had the wood grain in it. 

What color wheel do you need?    They are getting pretty hard to find and when you do find one you have to pay even for one with a few minor cracks. 

[Michael J. Cascio]

Everyone is right about the pad contracting in the cold weather however one important element was missed.  Yes the pad contracts but the reason for the horn blowing problem is that the foam between the pad and contact is very thin and with age it collapses.  Once it gets cold the pad essentially overcomes the foam and makes a connection with the copper contact. 

Solution, disassemble the horn pad (drill out two rivets) remove old foam and purchase new foam weatherstripping 1/4 wide by 1/8 thick.  Replace in the same pattern as original foam and rivet back together.  This will make the pad stiffer to depress, which is more like its supposed to be.  Once that is done,  you will never have a horn blow in the deep of winter.

Mike Cascio

[joecaristo]

thanks Mike!

[cadillacjack]

Should of figure Michael Cascio figured this out !  Thank you.. My pad had 6 rivets though to drill out.. Also this foam worked well on my ac vents no more droopy vents.  I attached some pics in case someone wants to try this.

[TJ Hopland]

Yours looks to be a 79 or newer wheel is why you had more rivets.  I had not heard that the 79+'s had that problem but its good to know its not that difficult a fix if you do run into one with the problem.