MTFCA Forum

Should all of the electric horns sound the same, even the 1926/27. My 23 has a very distinctive sound ( kind of a BERRZZZE) as many of the Model T's I have herd over the years. I wonder if the 26 should have the same sound. I just got a 26 touring and the horn BEEPS. Will need to look for a new horn or it ok? Thanks in advance., John

Is it a Ford horn ? How's about a photo ?

Sorry - should have answered your question first - yes, all Ford electric horns should sound the same albeit, I believe one can adjust the tone.

There is a magneto horn which operates on AC and a battery horn which operates on 6V DC. They have a different sound.
Norm

Since I made electric horns for Model T's I did some research to see how I was going to do it. During that research I noticed some things. One is that there were several makers of the "Battery" horn through the years but generally speaking they all worked on the same principle namely that DC current was applied to a basic solenoid driver coil but in a few versions they used double coils with double plungers and those did make a slightly clearer (and louder) sound. The thing that made it a vibrator was a set of points in series with the driver coil(s) and those points were opened and closed by the same plunger that was striking the horn metal diaphragm. Unfortunately when those points were shot they were not an easy replacement item and often the horn owner would file the points and bend the points holding hardware every which way to get it to "honk" some more and finally the horn was pretty sad in that the points part was wrecked beyond easy repair. My new horn did away with the points and used an electronic time base vibrator to honk the horn and those never need point replacement since there ARE NO POINTS inside. The rest of the horn was made exactly to Ford drawings so all of the metal parts of the repro battery horns are interchangeable with original but there is no points holder inside. The other "up" side of those horns is that they can be adjusted to work perfectly at 6V and draw the 5 amps that the battery horn normally demanded. But when adjusted for 12V operation then the draw was 2.5 Amps and no dropping resistor was needed nor is it a good idea to try a voltage dropping resistor on those repro horns in order to make a 6V version work with a 12V battery. It is way better to just send it in to be adjusted since that is all it needs for a 6V to become a 12V or vice versa.

Hope this helps.