VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Electrical - 6 volt 1939 Town Horn internal wiring

Hi, I just purchased the horn that mounts on the intake manifold for a 1939 Chevrolet. Took the cover off to check it out and adjust it and saw that the wiring looks different from my dual trumpet country horns. In the trumpet horns there is a piece of cardboard with about a dozen wraps of bare wire around it and I have always assumed that it acted as a resistor.

With my new town horn under the cover there is a bracket that has what looks to be an old fashioned capacitor. Its not the same as you would see in an old radio but looks like a small cigar with brown paper wrapped around it and each end where the wire goes in to it is sealed with a black tar looking substance.

OK, my question is, Is it a resistor or is it a capacitor? Also what is the electrical rating of it so I can replace it with a new resistor or capacitor.

I did multiple searches on this web site and goggled it online with no luck. This horn was used for a whole lot of years so hopefully somebody has the info and values for both the town and country horns.

Thanks for your help!!

It is a capacitor and should have a rating on it.
Al

Finally found an old posting that talks about it being a capacitor. That posting did not know the value of the capacitor either but speculated that it could be replaced with a .5 MFD 50 volt cap.

My old capacitor in the horn has no marking on it at all. I borrowed a meter that can read capacitance to check out what the old cap still reads. Even though it is old and probably leaky I thought it would get me in the ballpark.

The readings I got cycle between 1.55 and 1.7 MFD. Probably leaking voltage after it gets to 1.7. I checked the meter with a new cap and it was rock solid on the value of the new cap.

I was surprised that the values were that high on the old cap but with the points on the horn rapidly cycling it must need that high a rating. When I tested the horn with the old cap I was getting some sparks across the horn contacts which the capacitor is supposed to suppress.

I am going to replace the old cap with a 2.2 MFD 100 volt cap and see how it affects the point sparking and the sound. I will post the end results.

Update, I replaced the capacitor with good results. The sparking of the points when the horn is operating are minimal and the quality and overall operation of the horn seem improved. It now has a very loud and solid pure tone quality in the sound.

It seems that the 2.2 MFD 100 volt capacitor was a value that works well. Hope this is info is helpful.

I have a New Old Sstock Delco Remy horn , which i checked the capacitor on , and it is not marked with any part numbers or capacity ratings.