Trouble shooting Horn issue

[jbgroby]

Got a strange puzzle I'm trying to figure out. I purchased a new horn from Classic Parts (6 months ago never took out the box) and have wired everything up, horn don't work. I called Ez-Wiring and they explained you ground out the green horn wire from the fuse block and the relay should 'click', it does. So we know the fuse block relay is doing what is should.

I suspect a bad horn out the box, so I connected a set of jumper leads to the pos/neg battery post and touched the contacts on the horn - no joy.

I stopped by NAPA today and asked to test a new horn and I jumped it off a new battery, their horn did not blow either, so I'm testing these wrong? Is there another way to test a horn, I though it would blow if I jumped it off the battery directly?

[ray_mcavoy]

Connecting the horn directly to a battery is a good test and it should give a nice loud honk from a good battery & horn.

Some replacement horns have 2 terminals (power & ground) while others might be like the originals with only one terminal (power) and ground through the mounting bracket. On the style that grounds via the mounting bracket, it is possible that paint on the new horn could be preventing good electrical contact.

[jbgroby]

I was told the second terminal was a positive power jumper I case I wanted to drop in two horns? I don't see any marking on it for neg.

[ray_mcavoy]

On horns with 2 terminals, the terminals are typically power & ground. With no internal electrical connection to the mounting bracket.

If the terminals are not marked + & - then it is not polarity sensitive ... just hook one to power and the other to ground.

[jbgroby]

Ok, that was the trick, the posts on the horn are both power and ground, not the mounting bracket. I just need to make a short jumper to the rad support. You would think the instruction sheet would mention that?

Thank you.

[my56chevytruck]

Originally Posted by jbgroby

Got a strange puzzle I'm trying to figure out. I purchased a new horn from Classic Parts (6 months ago never took out the box) and have wired everything up, horn don't work. I called Ez-Wiring and they explained you ground out the green horn wire from the fuse block and the relay should 'click', it does. So we know the fuse block relay is doing what is should.

I suspect a bad horn out the box, so I connected a set of jumper leads to the pos/neg battery post and touched the contacts on the horn - no joy.

I stopped by NAPA today and asked to test a new horn and I jumped it off a new battery, their horn did not blow either, so I'm testing these wrong? Is there another way to test a horn, I though it would blow if I jumped it off the battery directly?

Check out this, if the horn has any adjustment to it tone, you may find that someones either turned the screw all the way in or out to far. If you jumped it off a battery it should be very loud.