Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I am trying to help a guy on the PAC forum with a horn ring issue. Apparently his was taken apart at some time and then reassembled without the spring or with any insulator bushings installed. His relay was being energized and wanting to blow the horn all the time.

With the revision to the one piece emblem and front accessible attachment to the steering wheel in 48 Packard also changed the ring assy slightly. I don't have a later wheel so am wondering if anyone has a 48-54 wheel with ring intact and wheel out of the car where it would be easy to take some photos showing exactly where and how the insulator bushings are placed. There was an extra insulating washer added so just enough difference that the illustration Wes Boyer did of a 47 and earlier wheel is not quite accurate for the 48-54 wheels.

Here is a bit from the parts manual with the items questioned circled in red.

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These are the only ones I have of the horn button area on my '54 from my photo archive.

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Thanks Kev. That is helpful but what we really need to see is how the insulating bushings and washers are assembled in the space between the spring seat, contact plate, and horn ring. If anyone has a ring where they could take the 3 screws out and separate the contact plate from chrome ring to document how it is assembled and where the insulating washer is placed that would be a big help.

Here is the parts book view of the assy. What I would really like to know is where or which side of the contact plate the washer is placed and does the bushing go thru the washer or is that apparently large hole just a generic washer illustration.

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If you look at this picture, you can see that piece the spring sits on appears to be isolated with rubber/fiber washers from the rest of the horn ring. I think that is what isolates the horn ring from the steering column.

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Correct. There may be a rubber washer too but in order for the chrome part of horn ring to move there are some plastic shoulder bushings around the 3 screws attaching the spring seat and visible in the photo. The screws pass thru the bushings and the contact plate to actually carry ground from the spring seat to the chrome part of horn ring.

When the ring assy is attached to the wheel the contact plate with the large hole in the middle between the chrome and spring seat is pushed against the wire and cup contact making it part of the relay connection so it needs to be electrically isolated from the grounded parts. That is what the bushings do. When you push the chrome the bushings slide in some larger holes in the contact plate to depress the spring and also allow the grounded chrome part to touch the contact plate to make the connection and blow the horn.

The question is the extra washers. On the 47 and earlier wheels there are only shoulder bushings. For the later version assy they added 3 insulating washers but the question is where are the washers positioned.

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The washers go between the spring seat and contact plate. You can just make them out in the photo I posted.

With the large hole in the washer that must mean the washers are over the bushings and being used as nothing more than spacers between the bushing shoulder and contact plate. Apparently used to limit travel and have the chrome ring resting closer to the contact plate.

If anyone has a ring out of the car it would still be nice to have the exact configuration of the entire ring assy documented.

Here are some photos as requested.
The washers with the large hole go between the shoulder bushing and the contact plate.
The contact plate floats between the horn ring and the rear spring loaded retaining plate due to the extension on the shoulder bushings so that when The horn ring is pushed down it will touch the contact plate to sound the horn.
Apologies for the ugly contact plate but it was the only one that I had loose.

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Thanks much to BDeB and Kev for taking and providing the photos. They answer the questions for today and provides some reference information if someone else has issues at another time.