Short Version- I took my column partially apart, when I put it back together I took it for a drive, had a rough spot when turning and my horn was sounding sometimes while turning. I took the wheel back off and noticed that the snap ring was not seated all of the way, one of the turn signal switch wires had rubbed what appears to be the wheel and the isolating material on the horn ring had cracked off and was laying in the column.

The snap ring was about a 1/16 of an inch from seating in its grove; what I ultimately did was grabbed the steering shaft in the engine compartment and was able to moved it up that 1/16 of an inch and get the snap ring to seat.

My question- why would the column shaft be able to move up and down like that; is that normal?