Trouble shooting horn problems

[Racer57]

70 Cuda

Horns sound very flat/weak if they work at all. Individually they work, but not if both hooked up at same time and all grounds and contacts are good.  Suspected relay was bad and replaced it with one from NAPA for $20. No difference. Hooked up to friends 69 Chrysler 300 and they sounded same as they do on my car. In process of looking at Roseville website for new horns I saw that there is a relay for '70 that cost $40 and one for '71 that costs $20. Friend also noted that mine when bolted to fender requires one of them to point up and both should point down.

So my question is....... should both horns point down and should my relay cost $20 or $40 and does it makes a difference ?

[Chryco Psycho]

yes they always point down keep dirt etc out !!
 if you are getting power at the horns they should work correctly  so may be there is a load problem & enough power is not getting to the horns or maybe a ground problem , not sure why the relay would vary in price by 100% but if it fits it should be correct are the contats lean in the relay ?

[Racer57]

Everything has been checked and rechecked. I call Roseville and asked about buying new horns and they are backordered but expected the end of this week. While looking at the pic (link below) I noticed that these would also have one pointing up and one down. Mount requires 1 bolt going through the bracket with holding tab to the right of bolt hole. As they are pictured the one on the right is correct, but the left one would point up.   I'll check around, but you know of anyone that carries horns for a '70 ?


http://www.rosevillemoparts.com/product_info.php/p/horn-set-hi-and-lo-spartan-oe-%23-2808868-2808869-all-upto-85/products_id/8785

[Fern]

My horns didnt work also. What I did was spray WD-40 in the horns and soak them. Let them soak for about a week, then poured out any left over WD-40 and dried the horns. They work great to this day. I did bench test them before putting them back in the car.
If you do a search you should find the same thread I used, dont remember which member told me to do this though.

[AARuFAST]

On both of our 70 Cuda's the brackets are made to fit only one way. Bracket tabs match the holes on inner fender wall,  Both horns point down.
Makes sense. U don't want water or dirt in the horn.

[solarguy]

There is a hex head screw that sticks out of the side that adjusts pitch.  Try moving in and out along with a soaking of WD 40 as above

[Racer57]

Thanks for all the replies. Today I got bored and using a dremel I cut the heads off the rivets holding the halves together of the one horn that sounded like a sick cow when it worked. There was a lot of rust and the electric contacts had a lot of corrosion. I cleaned everything up, drilled out the remaining rivet shafts and screwed everything back together. The horn now works everytime you press the horn, but sounds like a drunken cow instead of a sick one, which means I wasted all day working on the damn thing. 

The ones that Roseville has will not both point down and are on back order. So, tomorrow I'm going to drill out the 4 spot welds that hold the brackets on mine and go to NAPA and buy new horns and fasten them to my brackets.

 

[Rickster]

 Here's some info from a previous post that may be helpful:

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=94640.msg930902#msg930902

[Racer57]

Here's some info from a previous post that may be helpful:

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=94640.msg930902#msg930902

Thanks for the link. They went through the exact same thing I did. I suspect my problem is that the horns are intended for a 2 ton truck or something else. They don't exactly sound bad, just way the hell off for what they should really sound like. I did play with the adjustment some, but they sound as good as their going to get. 

[73440]

Any chance we can hear the drunken cow horn??

[YellowThumper]

Video with sound or it didn't happen...