Pretty soon Ill rename my boat to "Sinking Devil"!

My horn has never worked. So tonight I took off the horn and hooked up the
voltmeter and put it on DC 10 (mine doesnt have a 12). I hit the horn
button and the meter went from zero to down below zero. It did this each
time I hit the horn and if i held it in it would stay down below zero.

Is this normal? I tried swapping the wires and then it did nothing.

I also tried hooking the horn straight up to a battery and it did nothing.

If that voltmeter reading is correct then I'll buy a new horn for the
"Sinking Titanic" tomorrow.

Thanks fellas,
--C

Is this normal?

If this is one of those trumpet style horns, yup.

I'm on my third one in eleven years.

The trick is to be sure you mount it so that
water will drain out of the horn. I get sal****er in mine once in a while, even
though it's on a rack on the top of the pilothouse. It seems like if the water
is allowed to sit on the noisemaker long enough, it cruds things up and the
horn doesn't blow. This third horn has a very deliberate slope to it, in an
attempt to insure that water won't do it in like it did the two predecessors.

The other issue with a horn can be poor electrical connections. An electric
horn needs a good jolt to blow, and won't work well if wires are undersized or
the connections are crummy. Sounds like you
eliminated that possibility by hooking it directly to the battery.

"Ree-Yees" wrote in message
.. .
Pretty soon Ill rename my boat to "Sinking Devil"!

My horn has never worked. So tonight I took off the horn and hooked up
the
voltmeter and put it on DC 10 (mine doesnt have a 12). I hit the horn
button and the meter went from zero to down below zero. It did this each
time I hit the horn and if i held it in it would stay down below zero.

Is this normal? I tried swapping the wires and then it did nothing.

I also tried hooking the horn straight up to a battery and it did nothing.

If that voltmeter reading is correct then I'll buy a new horn for the
"Sinking Titanic" tomorrow.

Thanks fellas,
--C




You have the meter leads reversed to cause the meter to go below zero.
Horns go bad. I am on #2 in 12 years.
Bill

When I reversed the leads it didnt move at all. I'll try it again tomorrow
to make sure that it was connected good.


"Calif Bill" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Ree-Yees" wrote in message
.. .
Pretty soon Ill rename my boat to "Sinking Devil"!

My horn has never worked. So tonight I took off the horn and hooked up
the
voltmeter and put it on DC 10 (mine doesnt have a 12). I hit the horn
button and the meter went from zero to down below zero. It did this
each
time I hit the horn and if i held it in it would stay down below zero.

Is this normal? I tried swapping the wires and then it did nothing.

I also tried hooking the horn straight up to a battery and it did
nothing.

If that voltmeter reading is correct then I'll buy a new horn for the
"Sinking Titanic" tomorrow.

Thanks fellas,
--C




You have the meter leads reversed to cause the meter to go below zero.
Horns go bad. I am on #2 in 12 years.
Bill

Just swap the meter leads, not the wires on the horn.

"Ree-Yees" wrote in message
...
When I reversed the leads it didnt move at all. I'll try it again
tomorrow
to make sure that it was connected good.


"Calif Bill" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Ree-Yees" wrote in message
.. .
Pretty soon Ill rename my boat to "Sinking Devil"!

My horn has never worked. So tonight I took off the horn and hooked
up
the
voltmeter and put it on DC 10 (mine doesnt have a 12). I hit the horn
button and the meter went from zero to down below zero. It did this
each
time I hit the horn and if i held it in it would stay down below zero.

Is this normal? I tried swapping the wires and then it did nothing.

I also tried hooking the horn straight up to a battery and it did
nothing.

If that voltmeter reading is correct then I'll buy a new horn for the
"Sinking Titanic" tomorrow.

Thanks fellas,
--C




You have the meter leads reversed to cause the meter to go below zero.
Horns go bad. I am on #2 in 12 years.
Bill

"Ree-Yees" wrote
I also tried hooking the horn straight up to a battery and it did nothing.

Sounds like the horn is bad. Get a new one. (They're way cheaper than
props.) If the new one is still dodgy, you might want to have a look at your
horn button. As part of my winter maintenance this year, I took all my
switches apart and cleaned the contacts. It's really nice having the horn
blow every time I hit the button. My lights come on without having to pump
the switches now, too.

I like to use the "horn in a can" stuff. It's
pretty damned loud and I know it will
work when I need it to. Even if I had
an electric horn I'd carry one of those.

PS: My first boat was named "Brokedown
Palace" (after a Grateful Dead song) and
because I loved working on it but some
thing was always broken. And after spending
weekend after weekend after weekend
working on her and always saying that
it'd be done NEXT weekend, I considered
changing the name to Next Weekend.

I have one of those things that you blow in on the side and uses a piece of
celophane as the noisemaker as my backup. That thing is louder than any
electric horn I have seen and it is pretty durable.
My primary "noise making device" is my wife ;-)

Trumpet horns are expensive! I see now why everyone has a little hand held
air horn.

"Greg" wrote in message
...
I have one of those things that you blow in on the side and uses a piece
of
celophane as the noisemaker as my backup. That thing is louder than any
electric horn I have seen and it is pretty durable.
My primary "noise making device" is my wife ;-)

"Ree-Yees" wrote in message
...
Trumpet horns are expensive! I see now why everyone has a little hand
held
air horn.

You can also buy an el-cheapo electric horn to replace the trumpet horn. It
will work for the occasional "beep beep" type thing and will actually meet
coast guard requirements. Then you can also stow a hand held compressed air
cannister type horn for when you really need to blast for attention. Just a
thought.

Cam