Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I am having a problem with the horns on my41 120. I am running on 6 volts and the horns sound fine when I run the car and ground the wire that is supposed to go to the steering wheel horn button. When I try the steering wheel horn button the sound is weak as if I am not making good contact at the horn button. All the wires are of the proper diameter and new. My question is can I run the horns on 12 volts without any damage. I start the car on 12 volts with the battery under the front seat and run the car on 6 volts with the battery under the hood.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Running the horns on 12v has been done and since they are on for only a short period, so far I don't remember any reports of damage other than the horns being extremely loud. The relay should be changed as those are much more delicate and could be damaged by the higher voltage.

The relay does the actual work of connecting the horns to the battery and honestly I would wonder if the change in voltage would solve anything. If grounding the wire that goes to the horn button works them satisfactorily that means the relay and that part of the circuit is working well. I would suspect the horn button or the connecting wire is the issue and if a bad connection or something in the button is not making a solid contact to ground perhaps the relay is not energizing strongly enough for a proper connection thru its contacts. I would be concerned the same thing would happen at 12v since that part of the circuit would not change. The unknown factor would be since the relay would need to change with a 12v conversion, possibly the new relay would draw less current and the marginal connection would be overcome but that is not a given.

You might pick up an inexpensive universal horn button from Amazon or ebay to temporarily connect to a good ground and the wire you have been grounding. If the horn works well with the extra button then I would pull the steering wheel to check the wire going down the shaft and also clean the contact plate and associated horn ring parts.

My 1940 110 Club Sedan was converted to 12v and never any problem with the 6v horns.

Thanks, for the response, I'll clean up the contacts

Suggest you use a burnishing tool, not a file in cleaning the electrical contacts on your horns.