I thought I had my horn issue resolved. I have a couple questions for the electricians in the know. I tested my horn with a 12v battery, and it sounds great. I started to install it in my 6v system and only get a click and little hum from the horn. Based on the design I assumed the horn was old enough it had to be a 6v horn. See the picture. There are no markings anywhere on the horn.
Does it need to be wired through the horn relay before it will work or is it in fact a 12v horn and that is why it won't sound off with 6 volts?
My 1st guess is that it is a 12v horn. The click and hum when running on 6v are probably the coil trying to pull the armature and diaphragm hard enough to open the points to shut off current flow and start over again. But the 6 volts can't pull hard enough.
'57 GMC 102, Original 347 V8, HydraMatic, 3.08 rear gear, added A/C, disk front brakes, HEI, AFB carb, '98 Honda Black Currant paint. T-boned and totaled 10/12 '52 GMC 152 Stake Bed, Original 228, SM420, added A/C, HEI, disk front brakes, '67 Chev 3.55 rear gear. Gets used as a real truck.
Yes, it's almost certainly a 12v horn if it won't work on 6v. Cadillac switched to 12v in 1953 and used long, loud horns like that up into the 1960s. They called it a "Country Horn" because it's so loud.
Last edited by Peggy M; 03/25/202411:56 PM. Reason: fixed his "all caps" in part of the text
1950 Chevrolet 3100 (Ol' Roy) 1939 Packard Standard Eight Coupe (The Phantom) | 1956 Cadillac Coupe de Ville (The Bismarck) | 1956 Cadillac Sixty Special Fleetwood (The Godfather) | 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado (The Purple Knif) | 1966 Ford Mustang (Little Red) | 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 coupe | 1979 Ford F-100 | 1976 Ford F-150 (Big Red) | 1995 Ford F-150 (Newt)
