The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Pitiful sounding horn!

Can someone share instructions on how to tune my original 6v horn? Mine sounds so bad that I’m embarrassed to use it. Sounds weak, “tinny”, and pitiful.

Thanks!

If I aint mistaking, I think you should be able to turn the adjusting screw while someone in laying on the horn at the same time..?

Hi Chuck,
I never could figure out how to solve this using the original horn. I could improve it a bit but only to a point. I ended up buying a small hi-low horn combination which sounded just right. I hid it and left the old horn in place but no longer operational. Then later I removed the old horn as I decided it was just needless weight. Good luck!

This might or might not be your problem. I was having issues with my horn on my 54 3100. It was sounding weak and sporadic. It finally quick working. the problem was not the horn. It was the ground. Instead of trusting the horn to get a good ground through the mounting screws and the grill I ran a wire from under the mounting screw and connected it directly to the frame by drill a small hole and using a self tapping screw. Sounds like a new horn now. I do have a 12v conversion.

Thanks for the suggestion Dave. I actually had thought about a bad ground, but didn’t think it would make the horn sound as bad as it does. Your experience tells me otherwise. I’ll run a separate wire to the frame and see what happens. Jon, I’ll install a new horn if that doesn’t work.

Is there actually an adjustment screw in or on the horn that you use to “tune” them?

There is an adjustment screw on some of them, Chuck and probably all of them. Sometimes you have to take the horn nearly apart to find it, however. Sometimes the horn disk will be broken and occasionally it will be too close to the magnet. There are contact points inside also and sometimes you must adjust / clean those. You can not adjust the pitch of the note, but you can usually make them honk more clearly. But it is time consuming and can be irritating to do this in hot weather. Good luck!

Thanks for the detailed explanation Jon. Sounds like a project for the fall.

Are you sure both of your horns are working? When one of mine quits, the lone horn sounds really twinky. But there's enough dissonance with two, that they together sound just fine.

Is this running a 6v horn off of a 6 or 12 volt system?

Perhaps this Delco Horn Repair document will help with your horn problem.
Harold

Good advice dgrinnan (grounding).

Nice post Harold.

Well, sad news amigo. I thought I kept the old horn and after church yesterday I decided to get up in the attic and just get it down and send it down to you. Yesterday was blood day however and I wasn't anxious to get up in the oven 1 pint shy. But this morning it was cooler and I went up there to look. Couldn't find it anywhere. Ah well, I tried.

I assume that you are referring to the original, 6V horn on your '50 half-ton? I'm not positive if it is like the horn on the '52, but if so, it should be mounted to your exhaust manifold and there should be two wires running to it (See photo attachment). It is a strange mount, because the screws holding it to the manifold are electrically insulated from the horn. One wire is 6V and the other is ground. There should be voltage present at all times on one wire. The other wire (ground) runs up through your steering column. When you press the horn button, it provides the ground for the circuit. I'll bet that the grounding plate, just behind the horn button, is dirty or corroded. When I bought my truck that was the reason my horn wouldn't work at all. Took me forever to track that down. Now, about once per year I will notice my horn starting to sound weak (it's almost embarassing). I will pop off the horn button with a screwdriver and that gives you access to the "switch." You should see a round, metal plate held on by the same nut that holds on the steering wheel. Remove that nut, and also the wire attached to the plate and then remove the plate. You will notice that it is actually two steel discs, slightly separated. If you squeeze one edge of the assembly, you will see the two discs come together and make contact. In your truck, that contact is what provides the horn's ground. There are small screws (three I think) that hold those two plates together. Removed those screws, separate the plates, and clean both surfaces with acetone or some other, non-oily solvent. If either is corroded, remove the corrosion with emery paper. Put it all back together and I'll bet your problem will be solved.

Thanks Harold for the horn repair document. That will come in handy.

Daveboy, I appreciate the detailed instructions on how to check for a bad ground on the horn button. We were very busy over the four-day holiday so I didn’t get to work on the horn, but I may get time to work on it this week. I’ll be sure to give an update after I’ve done so. Thank you!

Note...... I still have the original 6V system, and I only have one horn, not two.