QuestionMy husband and I are restoring a 1946 Chevy CabOverEngine truck. We would like to use the original horn on the truck. Howevever, it doesn't work. We were able to get it to make one "beep" when we hooked it up to a 6-volt battery. Any information would be helpful. Thanks.
AnswerI by no means am an expert on 1946 cars or horns.
What little information I can give about this is from personal experience.
Your horn has a diaphragm inside. This diaphragm when new needed to be kept "wet" with lubrication. I repaired a horn on a 1959 fairlane by using the following method.
It took about two weeks.
WARNING" this may not apply to your horn.
Open up the cover to the horn diaphragm...
check to see if the diaphragm is intact, free of rust and in general good repair. If it is a good soaking in DW-40 is called for. Do this every day for 4 days. On the 5th repeat and give a jolt from a "6volt" battery.jolt it 5 or 6 times, DO NOT give it a long blast it could damage the the horn. take your time.
Give it a shoot of WD-40 and repeat the process every day for 2 weeks. Remember this is a 6 volt horn.. if you are upgrading to 12 volt , there are 12v to 6v horn relays available. Good luck, keep me informed If this does not work I will try to look up more info.
