horn kit

socorob · Feb 3, 2011

When I bought the alpine, it already had a grant steering wheel in it, with adapter. The horn on the wheel wasnt hooked up though. The wheel was in bad shape so I replaced it. I called grant and gave them the part number stamped on the hub and they said that one hasnt been made in years. Ive read on here that some early years of rx7 has the same spline as the alpine? Does anyone know if the horn kit from that would work with the alpine one, or at least be close enough to easily adapt?

AlpineII · Feb 4, 2011

Robbie,
I bought the Mazda RX7 boss kit and it included a horn button like in the following link: http://cgi.ebay.ca/TYPR-R-STEERING-...cessories&fits=Make:Mazda&hash=item3f06e8120f
Was easly to hook up

socorob · Feb 4, 2011

Thanks. I have the hub,itcame in the car already but it was missing the horn ring that stays stationary I guess on the column? I was trying to find a kit that had a close enough piece I could adapt and was wondering f anyone else has done this before.

AlpineII · Feb 5, 2011

Robbie,
The RX7 hub I referred to below I put on my Series 3. When I restored my Series II I bought a Moto Lita wheel and the correct hub from Sunbeam Specialties (they still sold them then). I had a heck of a time to fabricate somthing that worked but you have to look at how the electrical connections work.

On the early Series the brass contact ring you refer to is on the bottom of the hub. There is a spring loaded connection that is the stationary part on the steeing column that creates the contact point with the ring and allows the contact while you turn the wheel. The issue I had with the metal hub is that one side of the electrical path is through the steering column while the other is through the brass ring and spring loaded contact. You have to ensure that you isolate the two electrical paths one way or another. What I did was take that brass ring off an old hub and put it on the Moto Lita hub using plastic tubing to isolate the screw connections and thin layers of plastic to keep the brass ring from touching the hub. The brass ring has a connection point (blade) that you connect one side of the horn button to and goes through the bottom of the hub. Then you just have to connect up the horn button.

afssanders · Feb 5, 2011

Well said.. Alpine II

socorob · Feb 5, 2011

Thats what I was going to do, until I saw a post about the RX7 hub, and was hoping it would be something I could bolt straight on.

AlpineII · Feb 6, 2011

The RX7 hub will slide right onto the splines of the early series steering column but as indicated the issue will be isolating the electrical paths. The original hubs were bakelite which did not conduct electricity and isolated the paths but most Mazda hubs are metal. As long as you ensure you keep your two electrical paths seperate and don't short-out the horn button to ground you'll be ok.

There is an awful lot of common things around the house that can be used to isolate the components. EG: I used the clear top of a margarine container and an exacto knife to trace-out a seperator plate between the hub and the brass ring. Little lengths of shrink wrap is also great to cover potential shorts on things like screws, nuts and blade connections.

Be creative and have fun!

65beam · Feb 6, 2011

horn

keep in mind that the horns didn't work when the cars were new. you can also get one of the turn signal switches with the flasher option and wire the horn to that which is what i will be doing to the moonstone harrington. harringtons originally used a separate third stalk on the column for the horn instead of wiring it to the center of the wheel so that is an option. the chrome knob on my original horn stalk in the red car was bad so i used an overdrive switch. there should be a photo on my photobucket site.