Intro & Horn Question

[FiredomeVorhese]

Hi all I was pointed here by 47Plym off the HAMB. I've been having some horn issues and he said maybe someone here could help. But first let me do an intro.

Born and raised an Ohio country boy but now a Bay Area transplant. My current cars are a '53 Desoto Firedome and a '49 Ford F1. I got my Desoto about 2 years ago (found it in Brentwood, CA). Previous owner's father bought it to try to restore but kicked the bucket. It was repainted and chromed about 10 years ago, and can honestly use both again. The salty fog in my area eats away at chrome, even under a car cover. It looks ok from 10 feet away.

Anyway I spent the summer cleaning up the engine (everything top end, gen, carb, etc), redoing the brake system. I'm heading to Tiajuana this summer for an interior. And hopefully this summer a new exhaust system (Smithy's). It's running good except a slight hesitation on acceleration.

She's been one of my favorites.

I've also owned a '63 Galaxie, a '58 Apache, another '63 Galaxie, and a '50 Dodge. Besides cars, I'm pretty into vintage bikes. I have a nice collection of 70's Japanese and a 62 Triumph Bonneville.

I have an art portfolio here http://www.vorhese.com

And a blog here http://vorhese.blogspot.com/

And I run a vintage motorcycle forum for the Bay area here http://bayareavintageriders.com/

So onto my question.

I'm trying to adjust my horns. My low works fine, but my high is wrong. I've set the actuator gap to the low's gap, but I think they are slightly different. Does anyone have the gap seetings? They are Auto-Lite HAB-61 horns.

Thanks!

[Don Coatney]

Welcome aboard and nice looking Desoto. There are several forum members in the SF bay area. Where in Ohio did you live?

[BobT-47P15]

Welcome Mr Firedome......glad you came over.

Your car looks very good.

My handle on the HAMB is "47 Plym" On here it's "BobT-47P15".

I know there have been some previous discussions on horns.....can

someone help answer his question? His first problem came after he

repainted the horns......one would not then work. It was suggested

that the ground was not good due to paint. I guess that may have

been fixed......but he took the horn partially apart -- now needs a

little tuning help.

Here's a picture of the inside of his horn......lifted from his album.

Bob

[Young Ed]

Judging by his thumb the horns didn't like being taken apart

[greg g]

The horns operations is also dependent upon how it is attached to the mounting bracket. I alos have oe that is not working (high one I think) I replaced it with aother one and in the process droped and lost one of the little shims. So that horn which worked on the bench, does not work in the car.

The manual says this regarding adjusting the tone. Remove the covers and disconnect the leads at the horns. reconnect the low horn. Loosen the lock nut and tur the adjuster screw till there is no vibration ( I guess you need to press the button to try to activate the horn) Turn the adjuster apx 1/4 turn or till a clear tone is obtained. Repeat on the other. If a clear tone cant be obtained dress the contacts with an ignition file and readjust as above.

to test the horn, tur ign to on, connect jumper to negative erminal of battery. to the horn terminal of the horn. if horn does not sound horn is at fault.

If the horn blows in the above test but not with the horn button. Connect the jumper to the "HORN" terminal on the relay IF horn doesn't blow inspect the wire from the relay to the horn If the horn blows connect a wire from the ground term on the relay to ground. if the horn blows then the fault is in the horn button or the connection ( horn button on steering wheel completes the normally hot circuit to ground.) check the bat terminal on the relay to ground with a test lamp. if the light doesn't light check the relay ground.

If your relay is workig one horn, the added resistance of the other horn through a compromised ground my keep the second horn from getting enough current to work.

[Niel Hoback]

Is that dogs name "Nipper"? My experience has been that theses horns require at least #10 gauge wire and absolutely perfect grounds. Jumper wires with aligator clips will not work. Try making a dedicated ground wire to the battery just for testing purposes. And stuff a rag in the one thats working, just for the neighbors sake.

[moparjack44]

Welcome Firedome. I also have a DeSoto (48 DeLux), but the guys on this site have accepted me, and helped with several issues.

Jack

[FiredomeVorhese]

Hey all. I'm originally from the Northwest of Ohio, near Defiance in a teeny town called Ney. My dog's named Luka, he's half pit and probably great dane. My other dog is Sheena, half dachsund and possibly pit.

So, looking at my above picture, what should I set "B" to? Or is he talking about "B?" If so, what should "A" be set to? My working one looks like it's just barely not touching.

I have a buddy who just got a 51 Plymouth. I told him about this place. He's probably lurking.

Thanks again.

[Don Coatney]

Hey all. I'm originally from the Northwest of Ohio, near Defiance in a teeny town called Ney.

I graduated from High School in Van Wert.

[FiredomeVorhese]

I've been at a few Cougars vs Apaches games.

[BobT-47P15]

Looking at the Plymouth repair manual, "A" must be the adjusting screw, "B" is

the lock nut. So after getting a tone by adjusting, then tighten the lock nut. The book says exactly what greg wrote.

Any progress on the thing yet???

[FiredomeVorhese]

Well I got it working kind-of, sounds crappy, I have to wait until the weekend to grind all the different painted surfaces down to make sure it gets a perfect ground. It's hard to convince my fiancee to hold the horn on the battery ground while I place the negative to the horn's terminal while sparks and flames are shooting.