The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1954 6v horn questions.

My horns won't sound but click and draw a LOT of current I did a search and found a possible answer to my question. I think the points are too tight in the horns? I didn't even have an idea that there were points in the horn until I did a search. Should I take them off, take them apart, clean the points(in the thread it said to use a piece of paper from a grocery sack) and then bench test them?

Before you tear into the horns, check the relay. It should be mounted on the firewall. There could also be an issue with the contact in the steering wheel, but I'd chack the relay first.

had the same problem on my 551st clicks and sometimes would honk. there was a bad ground between horn and radiator support (rust). hope this helps

*Brian, I have EXACTLY the same problem. Longbox55, it could be that too. Anyhow, I pretty much have a feeling that it is 100% in either the wiring and connections under the hood or the horns themselves. The bar with 4 screws for the lights has the wiring for the horn connected to it too, right? If that is correct then I will clean those tomorrow, because they are rusty. I'll look for the relay too. If it is the relay what should I do?

I think yer on the right track. Look at the grounds first, then the relay and lastly the horns themselves.

Logic would dictate that: if a lot of current is being drawn it is not a lack of ground issue like rusty connections. One would think that there is a short in the wiring/relay or the points in the horn are fused together.

jdl,
as you are findin quick in your project..CORROSION IS A PAIN IN THE BUT for sure!..keep at it an you will knock it out as ya go..ya doin great as far as investigating your old truck ..an that is the Heart of the Hobby ..ya never know what youll get into next!
KEEP AT IT!
Tim

Ya know, what beltfed said does make sense. My amp gauge needle will only go to halfway, and it stays there unless the lights are on. But when the lights are on, it fluctuates LITTLE. When I press the horn, it drops the needle to DEAD. Secondly, I'm not sure if I can get the connections off where the horn wires connect to the bar with the lights.

Guess I forgot to update you guys. Cleaned the connections. Still no go. It does exactly the same thing as before. Click-release button on steering wheel-click-release-huonk(spelled deliberately, that's what it sounds like) and that repeats over and over. What does this sound like? All connections are good except for maybe what was at the horns, couldn't get them off.

Doing this from memory because I don't have my horn apart any longer. When you honk the horn it activates an electromagnet that pulls the diaphragm toward it. At the end of it's travel it makes contact with a ground that breaks the circuit and the diaphragm returns to it's starting point. This is done quite rapidly, resulting in the vibration that is the "honk".

The horns on my 38 depended on a stud protruding from the diaphragm to make contact with the housing, breaking the contact. The first time I put the single horn back together I put the diaphragm on 180 deg out & it would only cycle one way, basically what you describe. When I finally figured out what the problem was & turned the diaphragm around it worked OK.

The point of this is, you need to make sure the ground mechanism for the diaphragm is working OK & not insulated by rust or debris. To do this you'll have to disassemble the horn(s). Cleaning the normal electrical contacts may not be where your problem lies.

Thanks Tiny. I believe the driver side horn is the only one with rust on the connection where it goes into the horn, but when this post started I sprayed pb blaster on the screw to loosen it up so if I did need to get it off and clean the connections/take apart the horn I could do it more easily. I know my grounds are good because when I took the bolts that hold the horns off the area where the bolts were was shiney.

How do you take the horns apart? I'm getting ready to do a search and if I find anything I'll post it here. From the looks of the horn there's three bolts(not normal bolts but I have no idea what to call them) that I'll have to take out but I don't know how I'll do that except with vice grips.

Couldn't find anything, someone seems to have misplaced my shop manual when they were cleaning(wonder who that could have been, and I'm not waking her up since she worked the night shift) so I'll see if there's anything in the online manual and if not, I'll wait for someone here.

Well, I've made progress. Found the online shop manual again(they moved, old link doesn't work, I found it a while ago but forgot to bookmark it, silly me) and said that a rasping noise could be caused by broken or loose parts, which I would describe this noise to be before it actually can honk. I removed the driver's side horn earlier as I suspected it to be the one with a problem, and I was right. On an impulse I just hit the horn button a couple minutes ago and it honked, but only with the driver's side horn off leaving the passenger side horn on. So, I believe that my driver's side horn has something bad in it, but why would my passenger's side horn not work with the driver's side horn on?

Sounds like the driver's side horn maybe has a short in it. I don't know if my horn disassembling experience will do you any good on a '54 horn. I sent you an e-mail showing what my horns look like.

Yeah, Tiny, I don't think yours will. I replied to your email and after I got to thinking about it they definitely aren't the same. (I looked REALLY hard at the picture and determined this) Also, looked at the ammeter while I pushed the horn button in: Sometimes it goes down and then back up as the horn honks, sometimes it stays put while the horn honks. What could THAT be?