My 53 Desoto horns worked great. Then I painted them and one of them isn't working. I sand blasted them but I stuffed them with rags. Any idea what I can do? I don't even see how you get into the dang things.
Your battery isn't hooked up ! All kidding aside, the round covers come off so you can clean them & file the points if need be.
A few things to check; Since you painted them did you get a good ground when you mounted them? They can be pulled apart with the single screw on top, check the tension on the discs inside, they may need adjusted. Looks great!! Good luck! BloodyKnuckles
On those old Auto-Lite the cover kind of pops off,there is little krimps that hold them on the edge It may not be that sand got in them,but there is old stuff,like rust/drit etc. that when ya took them off to paint and rolled them around could of got into the points
Ok I cracked it open and everything looks pretty good, no bad connections or anything. I can't figure out how take the big round nut "B" off. Everything looks rivited. Anyway, 3 questions. How close should screw "A" be to it's connection. I assume it's a magnet and shouldn't quite touch the connection? How tight should the big round nut "B" be to the coil housing, tight? And can I test the horn safely by touching the connector to the negative on the 6V battery? I feel like I can't take it any further apart than this.
If the car is neg. ground set the horn on the neg. then use a jumper and touch the pos to the ter. where the wire goes on.
Can you hook power up to them while you have them apart? I'd adjust them until they worked apart, then put'em back together checking at each step. Might require a ground wire to help keep'em grounded properly.
It's 6V postive ground, so put the connector on the positive terminal on the battery, and a jumper from the negative terminal to the connector? Like I said I cleaned the connections up before I tried to run the horn. Also still need to know how to adjust the screw.
Yeah, I saw 'forearm' first, too. Then saw 'severed forearm'. Just before I passed out from shock I saw 'hammer whacked thumb'.
One other question, are these horns grounded through their casings, or by their connection to the horn bracket?
They ground thru the cases. If they worked when you stsrted and you were happy with how they worked. They won't need adjusting. Try a point file are sandpaper thru the points. I thuink you are not getting a good ground
I dunno about you but I often use served limbs to prop things up while I work on them, one rigor mortis sets in you can position the fingers to hold anything!! Doc.
Well it will need adjusting now because I removed the screws. So nut "B" is a tuning nut? And screw "A" is the points? This is how I test? Connect + on battery to a ground, touch horn connector to - on battery? I guess that's all I need to know.
Yes, you can test it with a 6V battery. They ground (POS SIDE, in this case) through the case. Note the riveted connection to the case with a wire terminal on it, connected to what looks like a wire wound resistor, then to a soldered connection. . POS to case, NEG to terminal.
Mine didn't work when I painted them. I scraped off the paint where it mounts to the frame, and got a good ground, now they are just fine.
Anyone possibly have the armature gap for the low and high? The one that didn't work was the high. I adjusted the armature to the same gap as the low but I think they need to be slightly different. It's becoming obvious it was a ground issue. I should have sanded basically everything connecting the the ground bolts to the bracket. It's always the most obvious, isn't it. But anyway I got it to work. This page has Auto-lite horn gaps but my horn is HAB-61, not shown. http://www.cj-2a.com/techtips/horn/adjustment/horn_circuit-6l.jpg
Good job figuring out the ground issue, but please don't scare us again with the severed body parts...
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