Horn Won(39)t Work...-gctid390449

[Guest]

My new horns (installed last year) just stopped working. I get nothing from either helm station and checked all the fuses that I know of and don't find any blown ones. I'm assuming the horns should go to the fuse panel.

Ok. I'm stumped.

I'm a little 12v stupid - alright, a lot. Now how do I check to see if power is coming into the switch? Is the + lead always the one that goes through a switch? If that's so, a light tester to each side of the switch and touching a - terminal on the fuse block should give me Light, right? That's what I did so far and it seems that i have no power getting to the switch or button in this case.

I tried to trace the wiring but it's very difficult in the new Command Bridge. The wiring seems to go from the flybridge shell where the horns are, down to a raceway above the windows, then back aft of the cabin and down another raceway, then back through the cabinets under the windows to the lower helm. DAMN! That's a lot of routing.

[Guest]

get one of these $5 voltmeters (called DVM's). Measure the voltage at the 2 wires which go to the horn as close as possible to the horn. If there's no bare metal you can push a needle through the insulation to have a temporary contact (seal later with liquid tape). When someone presses the horn button for you you should see + or -12 depending on how you connected the DVM.

If you have voltage the horn is toast.

If there's none measure at the switch. One side you have to push it to get the voltage, the other one should have permanent voltage. The 2nd probe of the DVM has to be connected to some ground bar or connection (not really ground, - of the battery).

Do these tests and if everything is as it should be come back and ask. Then we have to dig deeper (check the ground wire of the horn aso).

[Guest]

Ok, I've got full power going through the switch so the horn is suspect. I tried to pull the cover off but the screws do not want to loosen. The horns were bought last year by the PO so I'm surprised they are going bad already.

The are the white Ongura, if anyone is familiar... thanks.

[Guest]

I had the same problem my 2850 horn, stopped working in one year. I replaced them with this: http://www.amazon.com/Ongaro-Deluxe-...e+trumpet+horn

The main problem was it drew more amps than the exsisting circuit and I had to install new heavier wires with a control relay. Fairly simple if you understand a little about electricity. In your case, you may not want to upgrade the wiring. Or find a friend who understands this sort of thing.

[Guest]

Mine are that same brand and look like that, except they are white.

[Guest]

Mike,

That link shows a pair of horns that look identical to those on our '32. I don't know if they were original equipment or not.

At the beginning of every season I have the same problem and every season I have to go through the same procedure to fix them.

The problem is that the electrical contact points inside the horn bodies oxidize, probably accelerated by lack of use. They can also become damaged by arcing from heavy use. This introduces a high resistance path so current will not flow and the horns won't work. The fix is to take the horns apart and clean the contacts with fairly fine sand paper or a points file if you can find one.

There are two downsides to doing this. The first one is that there are lots of little machine screws, nuts and lock washers involved. My horns are mounted on the side of the fly bridge so the possibility of dropping one or more over board is extremely good.

The second one is that cleaning point contacts is addictive, to the points that is. There is normally a rather thin plating of silver on the contact faces to resist this oxidization and arc damage. Filing or sanding will eventually wear this silver away and you will be down to the base metal which will deteriorate even faster.

The points don't appear to be a replaceable part, so the real cure is to replace the horns. Having said that you really don't know if the replacements will be any better. For my point of view I like the horns. The are good and loud (when they work) and the finish is top quality so they look good. It's just one more little maintenance thing that gets added to the list every year.

[Guest]

Mine do this about every 2 years - the "voice coil / magnet" rust.

Just shoot some WD 40 down the horn, let sit and then operate them until they work. May take a few switch activation's to get them going.

Works every time.

[Guest]

These are new (last year) and they are hard to get apart. The screws do not want to cooperate. Can I just shoot WD40 down the trumpet to loosen them up or will that ruin them.

I like them too, because of the volume.

[Guest]

See my post above - I do it all the time.

[Guest]

Because they mount down to avoid rain they also tend to attract spiders. My horns kind of got worse and worse and somebody in my marina said to take them 0ff and clean them out. Sure enough packed spider webs right at the diaphragm.

[Guest]

Jeff,

Interesting. I'll give that a shot next time (no pun intended). Thanks for the tip.

By the way, I contacted Organo Marine and parts are not available. If it breaks and you can't fix it, you have to buy a new unit.

[2850Bounty]

bayskipper wrote:
.............. The main problem was it drew more amps than the exsisting circuit and I had to install new heavier wires with a control relay.

I was just thinking of the same thing.

I installed pneumatic trumpet horns a few years ago. To get around the circuitry issue, I used the five pin relay, and a fresh power supply to underneath the flybridge shell. The relay then powers the air compressor.

The little 30-40 amp five pin relays work wonders for items like these.