Triumph Repair: horn problem spitfire, copper ring, purple wire

Question
My horns won't work on my 1974 Spitfire. The horns themselves  are fine-I did a direct test from battery to them and they sang like birds. However, when I push the horn button nothing.If I turn the steering wheel about half way they'll beep, when I push horn button. I replaced the skinny spring loaded contact (kinda looks like a 2 in. skinny pencil)but no luck. I see the copper ring behind that,it looks ok. There is some kind of contact in the button itself(spiral copper wire, and a small contact that stick out of back of button.Does that have to be aligned with the (skinny pencil looking thing).After all that have any ideas why horns aren't working. I almost got smashed to smithereens yesterday so I need that horn so me and Spitfire don't almost get crushed again.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Jim,
There should be a horn relay next to the battery on the passenger's side. It will have 3 connections labeled C-1, C-2 %26 W-1.

C-2 should have a purple wire or maybe two purple wires on it and you need to confirm that it is hot (12v). C-2 should have a purple w/yellow stripe on it which goes directly to the horns. You can test this by carefully touching it with a hot test lead and the horns should blow.

The other position W-1 should have a purple w/black wire and you can test the relay by touching the W-1 post with a grounded test lead and the horns should blow. If they do everything up to there is correct. If everything is correct up to there you need to look at the slip ring and wiper on the steering wheel. At this point all your testing can be with a grounded test lead under the horn button on down to the brass slip ring under the steering wheel. All that the horn button does is to ground the purple wire that goes up to the column slip ring.

Howard