Re: Horn Assembly '39 Six

Posted by HH56 On 2020/2/17 10:18:57

Interesting and quite different from how the later horn rings make a connection. Don't have a car with the mechanism so am just being nosy and curious about where the electrical contact is made with the early buttons.

Never having examined that part, just from looks am guessing the reddish bottom on the wire part is what might be a flat fiber insulator disc under the soldered on wire contact and that part rests in the small shallow recess in the cup. If it is an insulator disc it would seem to indicate the cup might be at ground potential. Is that correct or is the recess in the wheel hub rubber and the cup is not actually touching ground so to blow the horn a ground would need to come from somewhere else? If the cup is not grounded it would seem that copper colored spider disc also makes the entire cup an extension of the wire. If so, does the horn button somehow touch a ground to the copper spider or sides of the cup?

If the cup is at ground then that would seem to indicate the copper spider piece is also at ground and the horn button makes one of the 6 legs of the copper piece touch the center wire contact to blow the horn. If that is how it works is there a photo of the button side or can you tell if the ridge formed at the outer edge of the copper piece fits into a recess in the horn ring or button to ensure nothing can shift and the legs cannot touch the wire contact until the button is pushed?

Is there anything other than shape of the copper piece keeping the legs away from the center contact? I notice in Joe's 40 drawing there is something that looks like a sort of spring that I don't see in the 38 photos. Does the 40 use the same copper 6 legged spider piece? 41 -- at least on Clipper based bodies -- and later wheels thru 54 are completely different and the contact surface is between two plate edges at the periphery of the ring center.

If the cup is at ground potential then the narrow slot where the wire passes thru would make it imperative the wire soldered to the contact have insulation that has not shrunk back enough to leave a bare spot so the conductors in the wire could potentially touch the slot.