Help with horn

[auburnamphi]

I recently came across an Amphicar,that unfortunately has been cut up.
I am working with the guy to find most of the car.
I am trying to put the horn onto my car.The problem I am having is that the horn has 3 wires and my wiring on the car has 2.
I know where the the brown and the black/white wires go,but where does the 3rd wire on the horn go??
Thanks in advance
Steve
1964 Red Amphicar

 

[Tedredamphi]

Steve,
That third wire in the harness is probably green and is the power for your red/green navigation position light.

Ted Matthews

 

[auburnamphi]

Steve,
That third wire in the harness is probably green and is the power for your red/green navigation position light.

Ted Matthews

Hey Ted,
I was kind of thinking the same thing.
I will try it out,do not know if the horn is working or not.
Did open it up and it looks almost like new on the inside.
Another question to put out there-on the back side of the horn itself,
there is an s-shape tube??? it looks like some sort of hose was on it?
Any ideas what that is about??
I am in Auburn Georgia-just outside of Atlanta
Thanks Steve

 

[CapnJohn]

Another question to put out there-on the back side of the horn itself,
there is an s-shape tube??? it looks like some sort of hose was on it?
Any ideas what that is about??
I am in Auburn Georgia-just outside of Atlanta
Thanks Steve

Steve - that is the vent hose that runs from your fuel tank (located on the filler below gas cap)seems like an odd place, but if the gaskets are sealed and the horn put together right it works well.

 

[auburnamphi]

I got the horn put on,now I am getting power to the horn.But it does not seem to be working.Is there a way to test it?All the inside wires look real good.Cleaned all the contacts,but does not work.Is there a compatable horn that will work-like from Auto Zone or other parts stores?

 

[antique459]

Did you clean the contacts that are attached to the wiring harness as well as
the contacts that are "inside" the horn?
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[Bilgemaster]

You might be able to get your original horn working again. When I first
got mine it had sat unsounded for at least a decade and a half. I had
to "washer up" that spring metal cross piece inside the horn body called
the "resonator" to give it enough clearance to vibrate against that
magnet thingee. You see, over time the resonator had gotten sort of
tired and unsprung and was resting flush against the magnet at rest. I
just unscrewed it from its mounting, popped a washer in between the
resonator and its mounting (thereby raising the resonator), reassembled
it all and then, there's a sort of adjuster screw from the rear of the
horn. With power to the horn from a battery, first you screw the
adjuster screw all the way in (clockwise), and then back it off a couple
of turns at a time until the horn starts croaking. Fine tune from
there.

Of course, you may get away with skipping that whole washer addition
rigamarole and just messing with the adjuster screw. Liberal
application of WD-40 lubricant or similar within the horn body also
couldn't hurt.

NOTE THIS DIRE WARNING!!!: All of this horn fiddling should only ever
be done with the horn unmounted and well away from the car! As
previously mentioned in a recent posting to this List, there is (or
should be) a vent from the gas tank within the horn cowling. That means
that this is NOT a great place for sparks unless you want to spend the
most memorable part of your weekend doing "The Macarena" in a big orange
fireball. For the same reason, take care that all electrical
connections during reassembly are sound, trim, proper and shipshape.
You certainly don't want any stray wire strands fussing and arcing
thereabouts. There HAVE been some real nightmares involving the horn's
extremely silly placement next to this gasoline vapor vent where sloppy
or lubbardly wiring was at fault.

There is more "sound info" (forgive the pun) about the horn in the
original Amphicar Service Manual, and I also seem to also recall several
past threads in days of Yahoo yore to this List on the very topic.
These past postings should be in the List Archives.

Regards,
Bilgey

On Mon, 8 Dec 2008 6:59 pm, auburnamphi wrote:

> I got the horn put on,now I am getting power to the horn.But it does
> not seem to be working.Is there a way to test it?All the inside wires
> look real good.Cleaned all the contacts,but does not work.Is there a
> compatable horn that will work-like from Auto Zone or other parts
> stores?
>
>

 

[jfriese]

Hi,

I've repaired many of the original Amphicar horns. Assuming you get the contacts to work again, you have to test it mounted to it's original, barely flexible, mounting strip. You can clamp that strip in a vise to test it but it won't adjust without that flexible mount. Even then, you have to do the final adjustment with it mounted in it's shell since the weight of the various parts alters the adjustment somewhat. In spite of Bilgey's concerns, I've never heard of a horn causing a fire since the sparking is going on inside a sealed unit, thus the sparks couldn't get to the fumes anyway.

John Friese
67 White
67 Red

 

[auburnamphi]

I am inthe process of putting it it back together.
I have cleaned all the contact points-looking at the front of the
horn,there are two small metal plates and a brown spacer.
Where does this spacer go??Between the plates or what??
You would think a horn would be easy to work on-also,in the
maintenance manual it shows a picture testing it with a battery.
Do you use the positive or the negative for the ground-since this
is on a positve ground car

 

[Canadian four amphs]

T he easyest way to get a horn working is to buy a new one from me.
they fit right in and work, There only $40.00 and I will have a few with me when I get to FL. on Jan 1st. will be there (Leesburg) till mid April so I can walk without falling in the 3 plus feet of show here in Ontario.
My # when I get there is 386 882 0334. and I will still get al my emails
(AMPHICAR CANADA)
GORD SOUTER.