The Problem:
Dear All,
I was faced with a problem few weeks back with my brothers Swift steering assembly horn strip. He got the steering column work done and the mechanic messed up the strip assembly thus the problem of NO HORN started. The mechanic had cut the strip and the length was shortened, broke the holder inside thus on every soldering of the strip and placing the unit in the steering assembly, the strip used to break and again NO HORN.
After many attempts on replacing the strip with a new long one and trying to fix the strip holder inside the unit, nothing worked.. The cost of the new unit was a whooping Rs.5000 from suzuki company ISB which is outrageous!!
The simple and cheapest fix to the problem is as below;
used a tin cover from a dalda cooking oil. Cut it ro fit the inside of the unit.
Soldered the lower strip end to the tin base
The upper part of the unit, used a spring metal strip shaped in the form as shown below, bolted via a screw and a nut from within a pre existing hole and soldered to the other end of the strip unit
when the lower and upper parts are placed on top of each other as shown below, the spring strip rides on the tin circle inside, each soldered to the respective strip ends thus providing connectivity from one end to another
And wollah the problem is solved, it does have a tinning sound when rotated but the limitation of the number of rounds it can take on each side is eliminated and above all the outrageous price of a new unit worth Rs.5000 just for a horn connectivity in steering assembly goes out the window :D
Yes there are models which have airbags in the steering on which such a solution might not work but in that scenario, having 2/3 metal base circles and 2/3 spring metal strips to ride on then would be one...