As the title suggests, it is unclear to me how the steering column is grounded ? (on a '96)

My horn has been weak and uncertain for as long as I can remember, then one day, it stopped !

Luckily for me, after checking the FSM, the 2nd bet after "fuse" proved to be the issue..poor ground. When I ran a wire from a good ground to the steering column direct, it works perfectly.

So it is not clear to me how the column itself is grounded, On superficial inspection, I see no wire, but although the mount bolts go through a plastic block, maybe its there job ?

( I have removed and not replaced one of the two steel bars that go from mount bolt to firewall), due to a headlight switch change...but it was weak before that

If no one can guide me here, I will drill a small hole and use a self tapper to run a ground wire direct

I am sick of having my auto electrics hanging out and want to zip the ****er up

 

I understood that the horn is grounded by the horn mounting surface and that you only have a positive wire going to it. The horn "switch" only interrupts the positive current. As far as the entire steering column, don't have any idea...sorry.

 

I can confirm the steering column is grounded by the mount bolts.

As I had to remove one of the two steel reinforcing bars that go from mount bolt to firewall to replace the headlight switch, I had not reinstalled it or tightened the bolt

Once I did that, the horn works fine. It worked weakly before because the (loose) bolt still gave some path, but it must have wound out enough to cause a "no current" situation

Most horn system I have worked on rely upon the horn button grounding out on the steering column (low current) that then switches a relay (high current)...horns can pull many Amps