How to rebuild, or find a replacement horn for my 41 Packard

Posted by Bill Jones Jr. On 2009/12/6 11:08:24

Now that I have all of the electrical part of the horn working on my 41 Packard Convertible, I am ready to move on trying to rebuild the passenger side horn. First I am asking the group of they know of or might have a horn that will work on this car? The horn is the low note horn and the passenger
side horn.

I have disassembled the horn and found one wire broken in the winding. We had tried to solder this back together and it has been hot enough that the shellac that is impregnated in the winding had melted, thus probably creating a dead short in the winding. I have carefully removed the winding and find that it is not broken etc. Now I am trying to figure out what to use to make the winding work correctly again.

I have looked at Indian Head Shellac, but it is very viscous and probably won't pour effectively. I have considered heating it in boiling water to make it less viscous or thinning it with mineral spirits. I have also looked at the product called liquid electric tape. This product dries like rubber, but I am concerned that it may in itself possibly contribute to creating too much heat in the winding of the horn.

On another note, I considered using door bell wire, which is 20 gauge and has insulation around it. The 20 gauge is about the same diameter as the original wire. I would just measure out the wire that is on the original unit and rewind the coil with the new wire. However, I do not know if the winding in the horn coil creates an electromagnet type effect and if the insulation on the bell wire would render the horn inoperable for this reason. Any one familiar with trying to rebuild a horn or have any comments to my ideas?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Willie J