The Horn Works
 

I had the horns from my 68 GTO recently restored by Gary Steinkellner of The Horn Works from Beloit Wisconsin. He rebuilt a set for my El Camino several years ago and they are still looking and working well. The craftsmanship is very good
If your are looking to restore that original set of horns I highly recommend him.

Gary Steinkellner
608-361-0095
www.carhornrestoration.com

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...4&d=1571845318

I used him too and the horns work well for me as well.

how much to restore a pair?

Go to his website for pricing details
https://www.carhornrestoration.com/proc1.html

He did a great job on those. I recently restored a set for myself. Easy and enjoyable project but I have no way to duplicate those heavy rivets so I used stainless nylon insert nuts and screws.. Have no idea how he did that.
Made a little test n tune rig for them...
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1608648326

Gary does excellent restoration work at a reasonable price and the turn around time is great.!!

I’d like to know more about what you did to get yours working again.

Sorry, I didn't know that was directed at me.
They are actually pretty simple and usually the problem is crusty or rusty diaphragms.
As long as the coil has continuity, which you would check with an ohmmeter between the prong and the body you should be able to get it working like new. If you don't have a way to check that it's okay because it's very unlikely that that will be broken.
The way it works is this- There is a coil of wire surrounding a metal, movable core so it works like a relay.
When you press the button current flows through the coil moving the slug. The slug is attached to a thin metal diaphragm so that it gets an oil can action when the coil magnetizes and moves the slug. There are a set of points, one point contact is fixed and the other is attached to the movable diaphragm. When current flows it pops the oil can one way and as soon as it moves it breaks the contact so that it relaxes the diaphragm again but as soon as that happens current flows again and it pops back. This happens at a high enough frequency that it makes a buzz. The buzz is amplified by the horn body. That's it.
All you have to do is grind the rivets out and make sure everything inside is clean with no dirt, or rust so the diaphragm is flexible. Clean everything up including the contact points, replace or fabricate a gasket to seal the two halves together water/air tight and use screws in place of the rivets.
After doing that you can use a current meter, which is what is pictured in my post, rigged up to adjust the current for peak value while the horn is being energized. There is a screw with a jam nut on the horn that you do the adjustment with. If you don't have a current meter you could probably do it by ear. Just adjust it for the loudest clearest tone.
Mine are still working and looking great.

Hey thanks Greg. I got curious in the meantime and dug out my non working horns and took one apart. I didn’t see anything apparent but I quit for the time being so I could finish up some other stuff. You’re right though there’s not much to them.

Make sure that the contacts are clean and that you have continuity all the way through from the power prong to the body. Current has to flow all the way through to make the oil can 'pop'.

Thanks for the tip

When searching for used horns is there anything special about the GTO/Lemans/Tempest horns? Was there a year spread? Did all the Pontiacs use the same horn? Etc.
Thanks

I honestly don't know dataway. I know there are different frequencies available but l don't know which ones are which. I seem to recall some identifying markings on them..but...crs is acting up again. I have some photos somewhere l believe but may have lost them on my old phone.

68-69 GTO horns are # 9000 251 9000 252
I have a couple spare LOUD pairs they are date coded also for the fin ick ee
1 pair mixed dates




and also several sets of builders if needed ,,,,

Scott

Scott, I think l recall getting my cores from you after foolishly throwing a pair away that l'd gotten from the salvage yard. I threw them away right before l found out about rebuilding them.

Once again Greg I see that you have a level of patience that I just don't seem to have.
You showed it with how you dealt with the bending of the grille trim and now with dealing with horns that don't work.

After finding out a few days ago that the original horns on my GTO had issues, I took one apart. I bent it up some doing that as I had to pound so hard on the rivets to get them to come out after grinding off the heads. After removing it from the vice and seeing what I did, my patience pretty much ended right there and I decided to just buy the reproduction set from Ames.

My hat goes off to you sir!

Roger, you forget that I have seen your work and you sir, are a master... Considering that you don't do this for a living is amazing.
I could only dream of having the level of skill you have displayed!

Scott, I believe I obtained my cores from you after throwing away a pair I'd gotten at the scrap yard. I threw them away before I realized I could reconstruct themoctordle

he can also date code them