Hooked up the horn last week worked fine for about 2 days, sounded great. Then, I think it shorted on something becaused it drained the battery and was very hot. So I got the battery charged and need some advace in wiring so it doesn't happen again. Most everything is stock on the car, except the wiring. Girlfriends Dad did all the wiring in the late 70's, so it's a complete hack jod. I want to eventualy do the original wiring housing on the bottom of the steering post (which it does not have now) but in the mean time I want to run the horn from a push botton switch under the dash. Currently I have the power wire comeing from the horn to the started post. The ground from the horn, to the botton switch, then to a ground on the frame. When I push the botton, horn sound great, but after a couple of minutes the horn housing gets very hot. So hot I can't touch it. When this happen I disconnected the horns power and and ground. Any advice wound be appreciated. And please bare with me, I'm not very advaced when it comes to wiring and the terminology. THANKS.
I think your wiring circuit is correct...permanently hot hookup on one wire to terminal board in horn, ground wire grounded through a push ****on. Check wires for problems...I think you are saying horn gets hot just doing nothing, not that you ar blowing it for several minutes straigt, so try this: Remove motor cover. Unplug both wires. Hookup a temporary wire straight from bat cable at starter to horn terminal, leave off ground, wait and see. I kinda suspect something in motor is creating a ground path. There are several horn motor gurus over on Fordbarn. If this one-wire circuit kicks up no trouble/heat, reattach your wire from ****on and again wait and see. I think your horn has a stray ground circuit somehow.
Thanks Bruce. Yea, when it was hooked up, it would get hot doing nothing. I will have to try you idea of leaving off the ground and see what happens. I would think if it had a hidden ground somewhere, it would be going off. And not just getting hot. But I'll give it a shot.
you might want to try a horn relay. they also used them for headlights. It just keeps the higher amps closer to the horn, not through the actual ****on. tp
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