Horn Wiring

[finest20]

Hello Everyone
I need help with the original horn wiring on my 71 Vega. When I bought the car, the guy had installed an after market steering wheel. The horn did not work at the time. I was able to find an original steering wheel to re-install on the car. When I took off the after market wheel, I noticed that the wire coming from that plastic stem was broken off. I can still see a portion of the wire inside the hole. My question is this:

On the original wheel, when you take the cap off, there are 2 metal plates separated by a plasitc spacer. The bottom plate is in contact with the wheel frame, and the top plate is bowed so it will flex and touch the bottom plate when you press on it. Am I correct in saying that the wire is supposed to go to the top plate? I assume that the bottom plate is ground and the top plate will complete the circuit when pressed and sound the horn? Can I just simply solder the wire to the top plate?

Thanks for the help.

[spencerforhire]

It sounds like you're missing the OEM horn contact; it clips into the white plastic post sticking up through the lock plate. It rides on the slip ring down inside and the spring loaded pin contacts the upper wave spring. As you guessed, grounding it out against the metal of the steering wheel triggers the horn relay. I don't think you'll have any luck trying to solder anything to that wave spring; you should be able to get the contact pieces out of any older(pre-air bag) GM vehicle.