FTO AUSTRALIA

Sorry this needs quite a long explanation, but i REALLY need some help and if you can be bothered reading it all that'd be greatly appreciated.

A while back I decided to replace my steering wheel and bought an Isotta steering whell and a cheapo Boss kit from eBay.
Well the Boss kit was a mistake, didn't even fit properly, couldn't get the horn working etc.
So I went out and bought a $90 Boss kit from Autobarn thinking it'd be perfect.

There were a couple of problems. First one was that the Boss kit had two wires (black and red) with lugs on them, and that the steering wheel only had 1 prong (not sure of the right term, basically metal thing that you push the lug onto). Asked my dad who does a bit of electrical stuff to have a look and he suggested cutting the lug off the black wire (earth) and then gaffa-taping it straight onto the back of the horn button (and if that worked then solder it on).
I did this and it worked like a charm for a couple of months.
One day I was driving and the horn let out a little blip without me pressing the horn button. This then happened more and more frequently (and louder/longer beeps) until eventually there I was driving around the Chadstone carpark and the horn goes on non-stop full blast!! Quite amusing for everyone. Quickly turned the car off. Turn the ignition back on and off it goes. Ended up taking out the horn fuse which obviously did stop it.

Drove home, took off the steering wheel and disconnected the wires. Put the fuse back in, ignition on and the horn didn't go off (thank god). I tried reconnecting the wires (still no sound) and then pushing the horn button (BEEEP). This seemed to work just fine. Was putting the steering wheel back on when it went off again without pressing the button. Quickly disconnected the wires so they weren't touching anything BUT the horn kept going. Basically, the horn button isn't plugged in, but if the fuse is in and the ignitions on, it goes non-stop.

The other day I put the fuse back in to check if the problem had fixed itself. Initally I thought it had as there was no sound, but then as I was reversing out of the driveway off it went. Quickly ripped the fuse back out.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going on????

The second problem relates to the steering wheel. The Boss kit seemed to fit perfectly, locked in really snuggly on the shaft, however the steering wheel is still loose (well actually the boss kit is loose, the steering wheel and the boss kit move together). The wheel can be shaken and "turned" around 10 degrees in either direction without the wheels moving at all. As I said, the steering wheel is firmly attached to the boss, it's the boss and the steering wheel both moving. Once again, any ideas??

PLEASE help. You guys are the best!!

Pictures might help your explanation more.
From doing a few boss kit conversions I can say with a bit of certainty.

The boss kit you have is crap. I personally don't recomend anything other than a MOMO brand, as they have QA to their name better than most of the other brands.

The shaft and spline are not 100% so you will get some play.
Two ways to solve this are washers of varied size and then a nut or 2 (hehe) to hold the whole thing in real tight.

That is the dodgy way.

To properly fix it, replace with a proper quality unit.


In regards to your horn, it kinda sounds like you have a short from the column to the slip ring and they are causing the horn to sound.

Given you have a free mobile boss kit, it's probably not helping things out.

As said, post some pictures of the steering wheel on, the horn button, the wires, and we can see further.

Astron_Boy wrote:Pictures might help your explanation more.
From doing a few boss kit conversions I can say with a bit of certainty.

The boss kit you have is crap. I personally don't recomend anything other than a MOMO brand, as they have QA to their name better than most of the other brands.

The shaft and spline are not 100% so you will get some play.
Two ways to solve this are washers of varied size and then a nut or 2 (hehe) to hold the whole thing in real tight.

That is the dodgy way.

To properly fix it, replace with a proper quality unit.


In regards to your horn, it kinda sounds like you have a short from the column to the slip ring and they are causing the horn to sound.

Given you have a free mobile boss kit, it's probably not helping things out.

As said, post some pictures of the steering wheel on, the horn button, the wires, and we can see further.

Cheers mate, when the Boss kit is on I have tried doing it up tight with a nut (the one that was on the stock wheel) but it doesn't stop the wobbliness at all.

Here are some pictures.

Okay

The boss kit being loose can be fixed by using other washers apart from what you have already.

There is a large flange on the kit which has plenty of meat you can utilise.
You will need to measure it, and have a washer with the inner diameter of the thread from the shaft, and the outer diameter to that of the flange on the kit.

From the current looks of it, the spline is ending after the boss kit, and you are not grabbing enough meat to stop it from moving. (a poor cast on the mold of the kit)


As for the horn button, there is nothing I can see as such that would cause it to not work correctly.

The inner button itself should not have the triangle piece on the top going under the metal of the steering wheel, it should fit against the larger inner housing of the boss kit and be held in place that way.
So long as the positive is not shorting on the housing, then there is no reason for it to be failing....


Edit: by the looks of it however, that slip ring does not look secure or encased by any sort of plastic. Can you confirm this?

Thanks for the help.

My dad knows a whole lot about nuts and bolts so I'll get onto him about a washer.

I assume the slip ring is the big flat brass colored disc?
If so, not it isn't encased in plastic, it was glued on to the bottom of the Boss Kit however that glue has worn off a bit and it now is actually loose from the kit. The red (positive?) wire is soldered directly onto the slip ring.
Is this a problem?