Beep Beep
Coming back from Costco one weekend afternoon I was herded into the concrete cattle-chute under I-95 where the State of Delaware were (again) trying to fix the giant traffic mess where I-95, Del Route 1 and Route 7 all come together. This is the #1 failed intersection in the state and has been "fixed" many times before. So there I was, packed like sardines in a can with my fellow travelers, running in a concrete corridor with my old 2002 built to the highest safety standards in 1970 versus basically, everybody else.
I'm willing to bet that readers of this blog probably don't have an extremely high opinion of the driving skills of the American public. Just a guess, but if you're reading, you're probably interested in racing, or vintage cars or the like. In other works, interested in cars and driving them. But that's a minority position these days. For most folks, cars are an appliance, one that doesn't need much attention to the act of driving, time better spent texting, yelling at the kids in the back, or other activities. For those folks, Google's self driving cars can't come too fast. But for me, to keep my thin, lightweight German steel from be crumpled beneath a 4 ton F150 pickup, I rely on 2 things: driving skills coupled with a sense of paranoia (they are out to kill me) and a working horn.
As some hulking SUV started to drift into my lane that weekend, my hand went immediately to my horn button, followed by my foot to the brake pedal. The brakes worked, the horn ... not so much.
Safely back in the garage, it was time for some diagnostics. Horns are fairly simple devices, just add power and you get noise. I started with the horn button, pulled it off the wheel and the problem was pretty apparent. The wire from the carbon pin to the horn button was broken. How it works, there is a spring loaded pin (called the carbon pin by BMW even though it's not made of carbon) attached to the steering wheel. It makes contact to a electrically hot ring surrounding the steering column. Being spring loaded, it's always hot when you turn the wheel. The power is sent to the horn button from the pin. Push the button, the power is grounded and the horn blows. Simple. And the fix should be simple too. Just find where the smoke it getting out.
I pulled the steering wheel to get access to the carbon pin holder. This is a one piece device with the pin and a spring. I soldered the wire and we were good to go. Of course, this being the Alpine garage, my soldering gun died in the middle and there was a several hour pause as I had to go buy another one, but that's par for course. I reassembled the pin holder and was heading to the car when my sweaty fingers slipped (we were in a middle of head wave and the garage is not air conditioned) and the spring loaded carbon pin disappeared in low earth orbit.
An hour long search concluded that without the help of NASA it wasn't coming back so the Bimmer was mothballed for a couple weeks until I could come up with a replacement.I wasn't feeling comfortable driving without a horn.
Finally a replacement pin arrived from the friendly Penske BMW folks in CT. Not surprisingly it didn't fit. It wasn't their fault. I have an aftermarket Momo Prototipo wheel and the OEM pin that fits is probably something esoteric like an Isseta part. Not wanting to play parts roulette for the next 6 months I decided to work with what I got.
Now I could have used friction tape, silicon caulk, or some other to bulk it up. But I have something new in the garage and wanted to try it out. Enter InstaMorph, moldable plastic.
This would be my first chance to use it. It sounds pretty cool. Little plastic beads, heat up in hot water and they become moldable, shape to what ever you need and when it cools down, it's regular hard plastic that can be cut, painted, grinded, etc.
I heated a cup of water in the microwave to 150 degrees, dropped in a spoonful of the beads and waited 2 minutes. They turned translucent as they heated up. After the 2 minutes I pulled the mass out and I had a piece of squishy, bendable, moldable plastic.
The first task was to bulk up the outer cover of the pin assembly as it was too small for the hole. I applied a wrap of the InstaMorph to the outside and waited 15 minutes. As it cooled down it turned into hard plastic. Using my grinder I shaved the piece down until I got a good friction fit in the steering wheel.
Next the original pin was much longer than the replacement so I need to make a collar to allow the pin to rub against the contact ring on the steering column. A few more InstaMorph beads and few minutes later ...
Now this won't win any industrial design awards but nobody will ever see it and it is functional and that's what counts. InstaMorph, pretty cool stuff. Available at Amazon.
The Bimmer is back and ready for fall. Beep, Beep!
I'm willing to bet that readers of this blog probably don't have an extremely high opinion of the driving skills of the American public. Just a guess, but if you're reading, you're probably interested in racing, or vintage cars or the like. In other works, interested in cars and driving them. But that's a minority position these days. For most folks, cars are an appliance, one that doesn't need much attention to the act of driving, time better spent texting, yelling at the kids in the back, or other activities. For those folks, Google's self driving cars can't come too fast. But for me, to keep my thin, lightweight German steel from be crumpled beneath a 4 ton F150 pickup, I rely on 2 things: driving skills coupled with a sense of paranoia (they are out to kill me) and a working horn.
As some hulking SUV started to drift into my lane that weekend, my hand went immediately to my horn button, followed by my foot to the brake pedal. The brakes worked, the horn ... not so much.
Safely back in the garage, it was time for some diagnostics. Horns are fairly simple devices, just add power and you get noise. I started with the horn button, pulled it off the wheel and the problem was pretty apparent. The wire from the carbon pin to the horn button was broken. How it works, there is a spring loaded pin (called the carbon pin by BMW even though it's not made of carbon) attached to the steering wheel. It makes contact to a electrically hot ring surrounding the steering column. Being spring loaded, it's always hot when you turn the wheel. The power is sent to the horn button from the pin. Push the button, the power is grounded and the horn blows. Simple. And the fix should be simple too. Just find where the smoke it getting out.
 |
| Backside of the steering wheel. The center fin is the turn signal canceller. The hole at the bottom is where the carbon pin fits. New carbon pin assembly on top (with red wire), broken original below. |
I pulled the steering wheel to get access to the carbon pin holder. This is a one piece device with the pin and a spring. I soldered the wire and we were good to go. Of course, this being the Alpine garage, my soldering gun died in the middle and there was a several hour pause as I had to go buy another one, but that's par for course. I reassembled the pin holder and was heading to the car when my sweaty fingers slipped (we were in a middle of head wave and the garage is not air conditioned) and the spring loaded carbon pin disappeared in low earth orbit.
An hour long search concluded that without the help of NASA it wasn't coming back so the Bimmer was mothballed for a couple weeks until I could come up with a replacement.I wasn't feeling comfortable driving without a horn.
Finally a replacement pin arrived from the friendly Penske BMW folks in CT. Not surprisingly it didn't fit. It wasn't their fault. I have an aftermarket Momo Prototipo wheel and the OEM pin that fits is probably something esoteric like an Isseta part. Not wanting to play parts roulette for the next 6 months I decided to work with what I got.
Now I could have used friction tape, silicon caulk, or some other to bulk it up. But I have something new in the garage and wanted to try it out. Enter InstaMorph, moldable plastic.
This would be my first chance to use it. It sounds pretty cool. Little plastic beads, heat up in hot water and they become moldable, shape to what ever you need and when it cools down, it's regular hard plastic that can be cut, painted, grinded, etc.
I heated a cup of water in the microwave to 150 degrees, dropped in a spoonful of the beads and waited 2 minutes. They turned translucent as they heated up. After the 2 minutes I pulled the mass out and I had a piece of squishy, bendable, moldable plastic.
The first task was to bulk up the outer cover of the pin assembly as it was too small for the hole. I applied a wrap of the InstaMorph to the outside and waited 15 minutes. As it cooled down it turned into hard plastic. Using my grinder I shaved the piece down until I got a good friction fit in the steering wheel.
Next the original pin was much longer than the replacement so I need to make a collar to allow the pin to rub against the contact ring on the steering column. A few more InstaMorph beads and few minutes later ...
 |
| Final result |
Now this won't win any industrial design awards but nobody will ever see it and it is functional and that's what counts. InstaMorph, pretty cool stuff. Available at Amazon.
The Bimmer is back and ready for fall. Beep, Beep!
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