Taking off the Golden Lady?

There are holes in the back side of your hub adapter (towards the front of the car).  You stick a long thin Alan wrench (or metal rod) through these holes and push the button out.

As for horn blowing, once your steering wheel is off, look at your turn signal unit at about the 9 o'clock position and you'll see a screw head that holds the turn signal arm pivot.  It'll probably have brass shavings in it from touching the back side of your horn isolation ring.  If so, this is your issue.  You can loosen the set screw on the underside of the turn signal unit and move it forward to make more room between the him and the turn signal unit, and/or clearance the screw head with a dremel.

Likewise, look at the horn isolation ring itself and see if and where it is scarred.  That will tell you what is touching and why it is blowing with steering wheel deflection instead of just a button push.

Perfect, thanks.

Okay, I got the horn button off and I don't know if the wire came off when the button popped off or perhaps it was off already. Anyway, is there supposed to be a spring under the button, because I'm not finding one..

I realize Carey probably won't get back to me for a few days but maybe a fellow Speedster owner can help. I pulled my steering wheel and tried to find out why my horn honks when ever it wants, usually going around corners. The Golden Lady doesn't seem right and there is evidence someone has taken her apart. There is no spring action with her at all and I haven't attempted to pry her apart to look inside this capsule like horn mechanism.

Per Carey, I looked at the screw holding the turn signal arm but there is no indication it has been rubbing on the horn ring. I noticed the wire that attaches to the horn ring goes through a hole. It is soldered to one side and then goes through a hole. The first quarter inch of the wire is bare so I taped it. This resulted in the horn not working at all. I removed the taped and got the horn back.

Please look at the attached pictures and help me figure out what my issue is. There are two little rolled pins on the back side of the wheel adapter. Do them cancel the turn signals? If so, is that the way the wheel is supposed to go on?

Do I need to replace the Golden Lady?

The horn button works by creating a ground for the horn itself (which is always hot). The wire disappearing down the column generally pops out under the car, does a few turns around the shaft, & goes up to the horn(s). 

Sometimes, the wire frays where it pops out of the column or on the wraps (they're there to give enough slack to allow you to turn the wheel). 

Jack it up and look for bare spots in the wire. If you don't see any, leave the lady off and go for a drive. If the problem goes away, it's in the button. If not, it's somewhere in the wire. 

Good luck. 

I was holding the lady in my hand and when I turned the wheel, the horn honked. The "Lady" is part of a "canister" and it seems as though she should be floating with a spring action inside the canister, but she doesn't float. The canister gets wedged into a hole and then just sits there. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Before putting the lady in the center of the wheel, If I tighten the steering wheel nut using a cordless impact, I can no longer dim the headlights with the turn signal arm. I have tried moving the mechanism toward the dash but it's already fully forward. I hope that makes sense.

I will look under the gas tank though for any bare wire.

Also while we're at it, there is a two piece nylon bushing just below the nut that hold the steering wheel on. After taking the nut off, you have to wiggle the wheel to get it off the splines. This causes the bushing to pop up. I also found another two piece bushing just like it under the dash just before a u-joint. They both pop out and slide up or down. It seems like something should hold them in place.

Paul:  last spring I had one of those rare moments of wanting to fix something, and decided to swap out an original VW steering column "rag" coupler with a spiffy new one I got from CIP1.  

It 'looked' the same as what was in there originally, except that the through-hole rivets had collars that were just a little bit bigger than the originals.  That slightly bigger collar was just big enough to short out the steering shaft (the one going through the steering column) flange to ground at the mounting flange for the steering box by shorting the two flanges together when the coupler was flexed by turning the steering wheel.  When that happened, the horn beeped.  Took me a while to figure out that it happened at the same place and could be repeated by turning the wheel and flexing it just so.

Take a look down there.  It can be hard to see (it's hard to get a direct view) but that might be the issue.  The answer was to get an original German rag coupler from Bug City.  Haven't had a problem since.  

gn

Paul,

My guess is that  your column was set up for a stock wheel and when it was changed to an aftermarket hub, the hub is too close to the wheel to allow the dimmer to work, and it also creates problems with the horn.  You'll need to loosen the pinch bolt where the column attaches to the input shaft of the steering box and move the column "up" a little (slide towards the back of the car).  If it does not move, then you'll need to cut one of the nylon spacers off the column.  this is the one that is at the universal joint under the dash at the front edge of the column bearing.  Threw will be 2 nylon spacers at this location.  One is tapered and has to stay, the other is just a spacer and can be removed.

Also, if you look at the photo of the brass horn isolation plate, I can see a groove worn in it.  This is where it was rubbing the turn signal unit itself.  This rubbing connects the ground the same as pushing the horn button, even if the horn button is not pushed.

As for the comments above about a wire running down the column, we do not do that.  Your turn signal unit (unless it has been changed) is more modern and has an isolation finger for the horn.  I do not see any pictures of this on your post.  It is likely still attached to the column.  Anyway, the only wire you have on your column is a short brown wire that is a jumper across the rubber crush fitting of the column.  This simply connects the upper and lower portions of your column, making the upper portion grounded since it is isolated by rubber at all other connections.  The other wires on your turn signal unit are all integrated into the unit and the harness of the car.

Thanks Carey, I think I understand. I'll have a look at it later today. Do I need to replace the horn isolation plate? If so, where do I get it?

If it is too chewed up then maybe.  It comes as part of the hub and I don;t believe they sell them separate.  BTW, it is not supposed to be loose like that.  It should be fined in place, so maybe just a little JB Weld or epoxy can correct that (IDK, never had one come off like that)

What is the purpose of the two rolled pins visible in the pictures? The steering shaft seems to be floating about an inch up/ or down. Is that normal?

The roll pains are the canceler fingers for that particular hub adaptor.  Stock hubs and Nardi hubs use a plastic "finger" in the same location.  When installing your wheel, those fingers should be at the 3 o'clock position with the wheels straight.

The column will float with everything disassembled.  When properly assembled (with all the parts) the spring pushes against the tapered nylon bushing and that bushing is forced into the column bearing.  This eliminates all of the play in the column.  It has this same bushing on the back side of the column tube, where a 2nd column bearing is located.  This tapered bushing is forced into the bearing by the universal joint itself and set by the length of the column.

Crap, I just realized I haven't been putting the spring in the assembly. It must be under the seat or on the floor somewhere. That makes total sense now.

I'm trying to remember.... the spring goes under the big nut?

It goes under everything.  Spring goes onto column first (and pushes directly on the tapered nylon spacer), then the hub/wheel, then the wave washer and then the nut, finally the horn button.

Okay, somehow taking everything apart and putting it back together several times, I have forgotten about the spring and stopped adding it to the assembly. I really appreciate the help, thanks.