I got my 76 Maverick 8 years ago and never had to use the horn .. It has been state inspected for the past 8 years with no problem .. This year it failed due my horn not working .. Where should I begin to diagnose this issue ?
1st thing - check the fuse. 2nd thing - have someone press around on the horn button while you see if power is reaching the horn with a test light or a meter. If power is there, it is the horn itself. If no power is getting to the horn after testing 1 and 2, it is probably the horn button, inside the horn pad. Remove the pad and short the 2 contacts. If the horn blows when you short the contacts, replace the horn switch inside the pad.
Make sure to check your power like acornridgeman stated and follow his steps. If you find out that you do have power and still no horn it could be that your horn is bad or you have a bad ground. I just recently tried to fix the horn on my car and found I had power and even bench tested the horn and it worked fine. But when I put it all together on the car it still wouldn’t work. Ended up being the hole where the bolt screws into was getting a bad ground and wouldn’t create a circuit. I cleaned the hole throughly and it eventually worked.
I have not been into the wiring or even looked at a wiring diagram, do these cars use a horn relay? I know GM used them and that made the horn operate from two different circuits effectively doubling the troubleshooting fun!
