The new steering column arrived today from Egypt, curtesy of eBay. I managed to track this one down, which is off an Oval Screen Beetle (circa 1958), as I wanted to match the original 356 steering column setup; including the horn mechanism.
Upon first inspection, I thought that the seller had sent me the tube from one car and the column from another. Having looked at lots of photos online before ordering, I thought that the splines at the end of the steering column, where the steering wheel attaches, would sit proud of the tube. However, if in this position then the horn bushing and locking mechanism (see picture below) did not align.
After about an hour of searching for 1950’s steering columns (not many images on Google!) I found that the splines actually sit just inside the tube, with the steering boss (just ordered) protruding into the column by a couple of centre metres.
The image on the left shows how the horn works, using the negative ground from the chassis being transferred through the steering column to the horn button. When the horn button is depressed, the circuit is completed and passed through a wire to an insulated copper sleeve (see photo above). A carbon brush then takes this (completed) negative feed to the horn, which is also connected to the positive (+) of the cars electrics.
We have also ordered the turn signal indicator (photo right) to attach to the steering column and will paint both the steering column tube and indicator housing in the original Silver Beige L466 colour.