Projects 1959 Cadillac, I broke something...

I may have really messed up something with my 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 75 I am working on.

I went to put a new battery in the car and was pretty sure I knew which cable was the positive and which was the negative. Well, I didn't get it right; both cables were black. When I put the battery in backwards the car's horn started blowing. I thought the horn ****on was just stuck from the car sitting for so long. It was actually a built in warning that was saying, "Hey, Stupid! The battery is in backwards!" But I ignored it and turned the switch to try and crank the car and, yep, it didn't start and the horn stopped blowing.

I didn't realize the folks at GM back then were smart enough to think of some kind of warning for people who would put a battery in backwards.

So after turning the battery around, the car started and does run and drive. The windows and the electrical systems seem okay but now the horn doesn't blow. I have replaced the horn relay with one from Auto Zone; that seemed matched the original. Even pulled both horns off another 1959 Cadillac and replaced the ones on the Fleetwood. Still nothing.

What did I blow or damage? I couldn't find an inline fuse and thought the horn relay would be the first thing to go. I checked the wires at the horns under the hood and the wires are dead. I really don't know what to check next. There is the fuse box but I can't read the markings identifying the fuses. Maybe just start replacing fuses?

Please help with any suggestions or ideas on what I might check for would help. Makes me nervous driving this Cadillac on the road without a horn.

 

Relay has bat., horn, & switch terminals. Hook everything back up the way it should be, then ground the switch term. with a jump lead. If it honks, most common trouble is probably under the horn ring, and cleaning anything that makes contact will likely fix it.

 

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I will double check to be sure the relay is hooked up correctly and try again. The horn was working fine before this. Even before I put the new battery in, I did test the old battery and it was strong enough for the horn to blow at the horn ring.