Today I Blew Apart and Fixed an Inoperable Horn. It Was Easy.

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harrisonm

harrisonm

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A friend of mine has a 1981 Chevy short bed step side pickup. He bought it new, but it hasn’t run in about 15 years. We have been working on it for about a year to get it running and driving again. To do so, we have taken a break from restoring his 56 Studebaker Powerhawk. We went through the engine and have rebuilt/replaced pretty much everything. A few days ago, we tested the horns, and one did not work plus the power-in tab was broken off (picture 4). So, I blew it completely apart by drilling out all the rivets, and I found that, 1) the wire going from the power-in tab had separated from the electromagnet (picture 3); 2) there was a set of points that allow the magnet to pulse, and they were corroded, and; 3) it was just dirty and rusty inside. So I cleaned it up on the inside by lightly blasting in in my blasting cabinet, fixed the loose wire with an old male terminal spade and a nut/bolt/washer combo (pictures 5 and 6), and cleaned up the corroded points. Then I made a new gasket and put it back together with 8-32 bolts and nuts. It worked great. All I have to do now is paint it with some Krylon Satin Black. If you want to, you can cut off the threads that are exposed above the nots and grind on them a bit to make them look more like rivets. It was a chevy horn, but I bet they are all pretty much the same.

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Very nice! You should put this in the How To section.

Also, FWIW, if you do one for an all original/show type car, it would be really easy to get the right size rivets and rivet it back together.......but you did a great job just like it is!
 
Really cool.

I always wondered what they looked like inside.

I’ve got 2 horns that sound more like a fart that I want to rebuild now.
 
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I have dual horns on a Valiant Signet. One horn is fine, but the other sounds sick even after I try to "adjust" it with that knurled knob thing. Maybe I will take it apart to inspect it now that I know it can be done!
 
I have an 05 Ram that has only one horn operating and it sounds bad. The one that had stopped working was after a big thunder storm so water probably found it's way inside and did it's evil deed. Maybe I'll tackle it next spring.
 
harrisonm said:
A friend of mine has a 1981 Chevy short bed step side pickup. He bought it new, but it hasn’t run in about 15 years. We have been working on it for about a year to get it running and driving again. To do so, we have taken a break from restoring his 56 Studebaker Powerhawk. We went through the engine and have rebuilt/replaced pretty much everything. A few days ago, we tested the horns, and one did not work plus the power-in tab was broken off (picture 4). So, I blew it completely apart by drilling out all the rivets, and I found that, 1) the wire going from the power-in tab had separated from the electromagnet (picture 3); 2) there was a set of points that allow the magnet to pulse, and they were corroded, and; 3) it was just dirty and rusty inside. So I cleaned it up on the inside by lightly blasting in in my blasting cabinet, fixed the loose wire with an old male terminal spade and a nut/bolt/washer combo (pictures 5 and 6), and cleaned up the corroded points. Then I made a new gasket and put it back together with 8-32 bolts and nuts. It worked great. All I have to do now is paint it with some Krylon Satin Black. If you want to, you can cut off the threads that are exposed above the nots and grind on them a bit to make them look more like rivets. It was a chevy horn, but I bet they are all pretty much the same.

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Oh YEAH?? LOL. Now let's see ya tear down and fix a MOTOR driven horn (ooh-gah)
 
RustyRatRod said:
Very nice! You should put this in the How To section.

Also, FWIW, if you do one for an all original/show type car, it would be really easy to get the right size rivets and rivet it back together.......but you did a great job just like it is!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have looked around, and about all I can find is hard steel rivets that are really hard to pound into shape. I need to find something softer. These rivets drilled out very easily.
 
scatpackbee said:
Really cool.

I always wondered what they looked like inside.

I’ve got 2 horns that sound more like a fart that I want to rebuild now.
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I hope Mopar horns are the same. I assume they can't be too different. I think I'll post a how to with more pictures. It will probably be next week.
 
harrisonm said:
Thanks. I have looked around, and about all I can find is hard steel rivets that are really hard to pound into shape. I need to find something softer. These rivets drilled out very easily
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Try McMaster Carr
 
harrisonm said:
I accept the challenge. Do you have one that doesn't work? I mean, if it already isn't working, how much damage could I do?
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There are a few on ebay. There's even an original manual "push down" one that required no electricity. It says it doesn't work. 65 bucks.
 
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