Some of you may recall my continuing horn soap opera. Last weekend I cleaned off every contact I could a replaced the dysfunctional stock horns with a couple of FIAMMs. The result was horns that sounded fine -- when they sounded.

The reason, I figured out today is this:

On the front side of steering wheel hub is something that I'll call, for lack of a better term, the spring-loaded contact nub. It is meant to keep contact with the ring on the stationary white plastic collar that has the ring-shaped ground contact.

That nub, however, touches the ring contact through only part of the steering wheel's 360 degrees. In about half the radius, there is a millimeter or so of separation. Hence, sporadic beeping. The non-touch area is mainly where the wheel is in a straight-on position, where the ring would have the most wear. (When the Volvo logo is upside-down the horns are fine.)

Seems like there could be two causes. One is a weak spring. The other is erosion of the contact ring on the white plastic collar.

Anyone have a solution for this?

Thanks a million.

Steve