i've been messing with my steering box on my '41 plymouth and noticed that the bottom cover plate has a hole in it with a wire going into or coming from the steering box and then dissapearing into a harness in the frame. There is nothing about this wire in the service manual, just showing a cover plate. This wire also seems to be the source of the steering fluid leak that I am experiencing. Does anyone have an idea as to what this is before I take it apart and invesigate.
thanks, Brian
Is it the horn wire? I think they were green. The horn honks because the horn button completes the circuit to "ground". Remember this is a positive ground system.
Brian,
I have a '41 P12 and what you describe is, as John said, the horn wire. It runs up through the steering column to the horn butten. I would think the leak is in the cover plate gasket rather than the passage way holding the wire. That passage way does not open to the steering box. BTW, if you go to replace the bushings in the box, I discovered that '41 was a transitional year. The upper and lower bushings are different. One is the same as used in '40 and the other is what is used in the later P15. I bought a rebuild kit from PLYDO that did not have the correct sizes but they made good on it and got me what I needed. Right now I can't remember which was which but I think if you check a multi-year parts book you will see what I mean.
Jim Yergin
Should you remove the bottom cover on the steering box, you will find a small tube welded to it which guides the horn wire into the steering shaft. It extends far enough up so that oil will not run out unless the box has been overfilled.
Unless you need to remove this cover, I would suggest that you don't because the "gasket" beneath it consists of a number of shims which effect the adjustment on the steering worm shaft bearing (tapered rollers)
A new horn wire must be flexible and is inserted from below. It completes the ground circuit to the horn relay when the button is pushed (or when it shorts out ) Battery polarity, as suggested by another writer, has no bearing on this circuit.