FYI, a car battery is needed to test them. Most bench-top power supplies won't do as the horns pull some significant amps.

It certainly does not help and leads to overheating and maybe burned valves in a worst case. Whether excess heat or something else is causing the engine problem is a guess.

When the engine heats up the thermostatic spring loses tension and gravity pulling on the weight lets the valve open. When open the weight should be in the down position so I would suggest freeing the valve and see what happens before starting to troubleshoot other causes. Coil failures due to excessive heat are a well known cause of intermittent engine shutdown problems.

Dirty contacts inside the horn could be at fault or rust could have settled in and the diaphragm has frozen up so it cannot move. Contacts are fairly easy to clean. Getting rid of rust not so much. In at least one horn I know of some kind of 6 legged critter had set up housekeeping way up in the air chamber and completely blocked the diaphragm movement.

There is a bit on the horns on page 49 in the electrical section of SM. You might try cleaning the contacts first. They are the item in the photo directly adjacent and slightly below the two wrenches where the mechanic is shown adjusting the tone. If that does not work then try to find out what is blocking the diaphragm. Contacts must be closed when power is applied so diaphragm can move and open them. Once that action starts the continual on/off of contacts and vibration of diaphragm is what makes the noise.

As always - very grateful. Many thanks.

While driving my 41 120, I have the problem of the engine shutting off after running for about 15 minutes. It will start again, but die in 30 seconds. I rebuilt the carb. but that didn't solve the problem. I noticed that the manifold heat control valve was stick in the up position. Could this be the problem? Any suggestions will be helpful

The 55-6 hydraulic brake switches are a well known failure item and is probably the culprit. About the only solution is to change the switch which on a 55-6 is located on top of frame rail below the air vent tube and roughly under the battery.

The NOS 3 prong switches used in torsion level cars are in short supply and expensive so a conversion using a 2 terminal easily found switch and a relay is the suggested replacement. You may already have this conversion but if not, full conversion kits are available from a couple of vendors or you can make your own. You can also convert to a mechanical switch operated directly by the brake pedal arm. Kits are also available for that conversion or again, you can make your own.

Once you find out what you have or decide on what you want to do additional information on the various options can be posted.

When Craig passed his Panther website stayed online for a few months before going dark. I doubt if anyone tried to save everything that was on the site but the internet archive did collect some of the information. Here is a bit on the parts he used for the brake conversion but as has been found on other archived sites, the web crawlers apparently do not drill down to save all the sublinks and photos so those appear to be missing.

Quote:

thank you for that Howard. I will see where I can source one.

But before I ask for more parts, I noticed my horns do not work. I do know I am getting power to the horn relay, the horn switch in the column as be verified, and I am getting power to the horn's wire, but still no sound. I have tried grounding the horns and apply straight battery voltage to the horns and still no sound. I believe my horns are bad. Is there an adjustment that could be made to get them to work? or is it better just to get other ones?

Thank you

Morning - I have to really press down hard on the brake before the tail lights come on. Is there a way perhaps to adjust the pedal or sensitivity so that they come one as soon as I touch the pedal.

As I'm sure you all experience - people love to come right upon my bumper when I'm driving to see the car - when i touch the brake to decelerate - the lights don't engage so they don't know i'm slowing/stopping.... no bueno.

Appreciate any input.

Does anyone have the details that Craig Hendrickson previously mentioned for his 4 wheel disk brake conversion? His posted website links do not work. I’m new to Packards and new to this forum.