The horn is a simple mechanism. A small electric motor turns a disk with bumps that in turn, rubs on the end of a bolt attached to a plate.
If there is no sound at all, maybe one of the electrical connections is disconnected. There might be crud on the connections causing resistance to the flow of electricity through the motor.
Take of the motor cover and:
Clean all the electrical connections ,
Clean up the commutator (by hand, spin it with very fine emerycloth held against it)
And give the bearings a couple of drops of 3-in-1 oil.
Hope this helps. Dean
Dean 'Rustoholic' Meltz old and ugly is beautiful!
I was working on 3 of these recently under the guidance of my mentor who unfortunately is a F**D guy. We only had access to a 12 volt battery at the time and got them all working. When I tried them on a 6 volt battery they would not work at all. The adjusting screw made all the difference in the world. Once connected to 6 volt power, we found that the adjusting screw had a narrow sweet spot, but when found, they all worked fine. My $0.02 worth ........... Good Luck.........Joe...........
Although this is an old thread, I performed some maintenance on my horn and I think the info belongs here instead of starting a new thread.
I took Lurch out for a drive the other day and got the usual large number of smiles per mile and thumbs up. ;-) When I honked the horn to show my appreciation, the horn sounded super weak (a-euuuue-ooo). Not good.
It's been a long while since his horn motor was looked at, so it's time for some TLC. Point of interest, I read that the horn motor on antique Rolls Royces should be oiled every 100 miles!!
I popped the motor cover off, cleaned the carbon off the commutator with Qtips and denatured alcohol, and put a couple of drops of 3-in-1 oil on each of the two motor bearings.
The improvement of the horn sound was amazing! AAAOOGAAAHHH!!
Cheers, Dean
Dean 'Rustoholic' Meltz old and ugly is beautiful!
Can anyone tell me where the horn should be mounted on my 28 coupe? Is the Klaxon 8C 8C horn the one to use? Unless someone has an original they would sell..
Not sure where it mounts but 8C is the correct horn for 1928. I think it is mounted on the frame. Single exhaust port heads mounted it on the exhaust manifold. It was moved with the start of the 2 port exhaust head for 1928.
Last edited by SSG26K; 11/01/2112:51 AM.
Steve '25 Superior "K", '79 Corvette , '72 Corvette LT-1 & 1965 Corvette Coupe
Below is a photo of the horn bracket that is mounted on my 1928 Canopy Express. My truck is built on a car chassis, so the location of the horn is the same as yours: inside the chassis rail, next to the generator.
Good luck! Dean
Dean 'Rustoholic' Meltz old and ugly is beautiful!
Not sure where it mounts but 8C is the correct horn for 1928. I think it is mounted on the frame. Single exhaust port heads mounted it on the exhaust manifold. It was moved with the start of the 2 port exhaust head for 1928.
I have been searching for different subtle clues to tell weather my 1-ton is a 27LM with a 28 replacement motor or actually a 28LO. I have a horn bracket that is affixed to the frame in that spot. I would like to find a correct horn also. It's good to know which to use, and how to fix them if needed. David