Last night at 3AM it decided to randomly turn the horn on! Woke up the entire neighborhood too. I disconnected the battery and got a HUGE spark! Every once awhile all the windows stop working, could that be related? I'm afraid to touch it, I already injured myself this week! HELP!
is it possible the horn ring in the wheel came apart and made connection to let the horn go off? We all know how old these cars are and when something goes its not cheap. Or possibly melted wires but thats a very far off chance.
I dunno? It sat all week without so much as dripping any oil, and then "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKK!!!!!!!!"
Definitely the horn ring. Take the steering wheel off and watch in amazement as pieces of plastic start falling out, then notice how your formerly one-piece horn ring is now a several-piece part.
The windows not working is likely unrelated. If it's only the windows it could be the circuit breaker. If other things on the "ACC" circuit, such as the radio, stop working as well you need an ignition switch.
hmmm, i have a "few" spares of those. We'll try it!
No dice Carm. I replaced the very sloppy ignition switch with a much better one and replaced the coil. Car runs a LOT better but the random power outages still happen. I need to spend some quality time with it and my multi-meter...
Yeah, but did you fix the horn? :D
I'd check the fusible links near the starter solenoid, as well as the actual connections at the solenoid. Gotta be a loose or corroded connection somewhere...
I pulled the spring out of the steering wheel. Surprisingly, NOTHING was broken in there!
Does it have an old unknown alarm system? I've seen many people have issues with a car and come to find out there is an old alarm system from the mid 90's that all have forgotten about.
I don't think so, but good catch Claude. I didn't even think to look for that. I'll do some wire chasing...
I had that happen with my '87 Cherokee a few years ago. Didn't even know it had an alarm in it until a Mountie knocked on my apartment door at about 2:00 AM telling me my alarm was going off. I told him there must be a mistake, I had no alarm. He asked if I owned a red '87 Cheroke, license XXX-111. I went outside and sure enough, there was my Jeep, blatting away. I reached under the hood near the battery, grabbed a fistful of wires, and yanked. At 2:00 AM I didn't care which wires they were. The alarm shut up and I went back to bed :hick:
Uh-huh. Only slightly mangled, and separated from the plastic "top hat" retainer ring.
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