I need an Exorcist!

[Airgonzo]

Here's a funny Delica anecdote that doubles as a plea for technical help and further proof that there is never a dull moment for Delica owners.

Read on for shear amusement or if you may be able to lend some electrical troubleshooting expertise. . .

Last week my wife and I took our Spacegear up the Duffy lake road and spent a few days doing overnight hikes into both Upper Joffre Lake and Rohr Lake. Both beautiful hikes and great places to camp. I would highly recommend Rohr Lake, it was amazing, just don't forget your fishing rod. The Lake is teeming and you can see the trout from shore in the crystal clear turquoise lakewater. We didn't see a soul on the hike in or out and had the whole lake to ourselves. There is a stunning campsite in the trees by the lake and a great view of Marriot Basin. The hike is shortened considerably if you 4x4 up the logging road off the Duffy to the point where it peters out into a hiking trail at the trailhead. This shaves off a couple kilometers of hiking on logging road but it is rough - we had the van in 4L and needed every bit of clearance we have. Be prepared for a steep hike. You gain about 500m elevation in a couple of hours and the last half hour or more is very scrambly, across boulders up a rockslide, slipping and sliding through a steep stream-bed up to your shins in muck in spots. But well worth it when you reach the top.

Anyway, we got back from the trip Thursday afternoon and parked the Mighty Spacegear in front of the house. A couple of hours later we were enjoying a few drinks on the back porch when we heard a car horn sound off in a continuous blare. Damn car alarms I thought, but this was really obnoxious - not just the repeated honking of a typical car alarm - this was an unending, warbling blast of noise. Of course it didn't take long for me to start muttering, "alright Asshole, turn your alarm off or I'll come out there and put a brick through the window of your yuppie-mobile." This went on for some time and after several minutes of this high-decibal aural assault the muttering had progressed to high-intensity anti-yuppie rage and I was ready to go rummaging through the garage for my crowbar. I finally headed to the front of the house to see what the hell was going on and when I got to the street, with the rest of the neighborhood who had migrated to their front steps, I realized with a sink feeling in my guts that the blast was coming from either our Spacegear or one of the vehicles either directly in front of or behind it but it was so overwhelmingly loud that it was hard to pinpoint. With great trepidation I crept towards the van, hand outstretched, into the heart of the deafening noise, all eyes upon me, until my hand touched the Spacegear's hood and I snatched it back as if bitten. The hood was buzzing like, hmmm . . . I don't know. . . a set of 1000 W hair clippers on cocaine, or something.
OUR VAN WAS POSSESSED BY DEMONS!!!!

I quickly unlocked the door, put the keys in the ignition and turned the ignition on and instantly tranquillity replaced the madness of moments before. I sighed with relief and turned the ignition off. . . and the earth shook once more with the tortured screams of the possessed Spacegear. I turned the ignition on again, it stopped, I popped the hood and quickly unhooked the negative lead from the battery and turned the ignition off. Silence. Whew. If that hadn't worked I may well have been convinced of the existence of gremlins.

By now the rubbernecking neighbors were filtering back into their houses. I tried to find the fuse for the horn but unfortunately I don't read Japanese. I consulted the infinite wisdom of Google and found some english fuse-box stickers which I might buy, found the Horn fuse, pulled it and, viola, problem solved. . . except now I have no horn.

This problem may be way beyond my rudimentary electrical abilities but if anyone has the time, patience and knowledge to lead me through this or give me some advice as to how to begin troubleshooting this problem any help would be greatly appreciated. I assume I either have a short somewhere in the Horn circuit or a problem with the switch in the steering wheel perhaps. I don't know how hard it is to get at the guts of the steering wheel, but at least our van doesn't have airbags.

Cheers,

Kevin.

[davidwwc]

Hi Kevin,

Do you have the l400 manuel? If not ,here you arte :

http://www.delicaclub.com/downloads.php?cat=7

You will find a lot of possible downloads and pick out the one for the l400 . You can find the horn section from the chassis electrical page.

Hope that helps.

DC

[mararmeisto]

This problem when associated with an L300 is the horn diaphram in the steering column.

Essentially the horn button has to be replaced.

[TardisDeli]

Marameisto is correct that the L300's sometime need the ''stir stick fix'' but your problem is unique in that the horn turned off when you turned the key on, in the ignition. My best guess would be that there might still be the remains of some alarm system sorta working? Good luck excorcisting it Cheers Jay Tardis Deli

[Airgonzo]

Does any body know what the horn relay-type-dealie under the hood is for? The fuse for the horn is under the steering wheel but in the box under the hood there are four relays (I think?) on the right side of the back of the box: Horn, intercooler, front foglamp and wiper de-icer. My rig only has the intercooler and foglamp relays in place, the other 2 slots are empty, I presume because I don't have wiper de-icer but what about the horn? What gives? Probably some option I don't have but just exploring all my options here? Could that be the culprit? Also,

http://www.t0me.com/t0me/pics/enginefb.jpg

Also, my rig has a big black plastic toggle-switch on the dash to the left of the steering wheel that selects 2 different horn sounds. Is this stock or a mod that somebody has installed, perhaps with some dodgy wiring which could be faulty?

thanks,

Kevin.

[CREGAN]

Also, my rig has a big black plastic toggle-switch on the dash to the left of the steering wheel that selects 2 different horn sounds. Is this stock or a mod that somebody has installed, perhaps with some dodgy wiring which could be faulty?

That would be my guess. I have never heard of different horn types that could be switched. Probably installed professionally. Can you sense the sarcasm?

Craig