Horn Stopped Working

[Skeeter Jeff63]

Hope someone here can help me out with an electrical problem. This past weekend I hit the horn switch on my 97 Skeeter and it worked once then quit. Yesterday I checked the 10 amp spade fuse and it looked intact but heavily oxidized. I cleaned it up some with sandpaper and put it back and still no horn. I then took the horn (which looked to be the original unit) and dash switch out, made a jumper wire assembly and hooked it all up to one of the trolling motor batteries. The horn worked once then quit again. After tapping on the back of the horn with a screwdriver handle it would work intermittently so I figured the horn is bad. Also checked the horn switch with an Ohm meter and it is good. For the heck of it, I dug out an old 12v car horn I had, and hooked the terminals up to the TM battery and it was good. I then hooked the car horn up and reinstalled the switch back in the dash and nothing ? no horn. So I then pulled the 10 amp fuse from the nav. lights and switched it with the horn fuse. Now the horn will make a clicking noise that sounds like a contactor opening and closing but no other sound. Also, the nav. lights do not work now. So I re-checked the fuse with the meter and it is actually good.

So now I am thinking the problem may be one or a combination of the following:
1. weak or bad cranking battery
2. corrosion on the fuse panel or fuse
3. ground problem

All of the dash lights, pumps and flasher work fine. Just no horn.

Am I overlooking anything? Is there any difference between and car horn and one for a boat? What can I spray on the fuse panel to remove the oxidation?

I hate electrical problems!

 

[fdmsiv]

Re: Horn Stopped Working

I would say your problem lies in the switch. From what I understand you have used 2 different horns and checked and cleaned the fuses. Obviously the horns are working, just the flow of electrons is getting stopped somewhere along the line.

Also check the ground, make sure all connections are tight and clean. You had some oxidation on the fuse, could have it somewhere else also.

 

[Skeeter Jeff63]

Re: Horn Stopped Working

I checked the switch with an Ohm meter and by wiring it up direct to one of the TM batteries and it works. Going to check battery tonight and then see what the voltage reads at the horn, when I hit the switch. Then start checking the connections/ground wires from there.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Horn Stopped Working

Car horns draw a lot of current which is why they normally work through a relay whereas a boat horn does not. I suspect you have a fuse panel problem caused by the corrosion. If the panel is corrorded, every connection to it becomes suspect which is why a perfectly working set of nav lights now does not work.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Horn Stopped Working

I then took the horn (which looked to be the original unit) and dash switch out, made a jumper wire assembly and hooked it all up to one of the trolling motor batteries.

The horn worked once then quit again. After tapping on the back of the horn with a screwdriver handle it would work intermittently

so I figured the horn is bad. Also checked the horn switch with an Ohm meter and it is good. For the heck of it, I dug out an old 12v car horn I had, and hooked the terminals up to the TM battery and it was good. I then hooked the car horn up and reinstalled the switch back in the dash and nothing ? no horn. So I then pulled the 10 amp fuse from the nav. lights and switched it with the horn fuse.


Now the horn will make a clicking noise that sounds like a contactor opening and closing but no other sound.

Also, the nav. lights do not work now. So I re-checked the fuse with the meter and it is actually good.

So now I am thinking the problem may be one or a combination of the following:
1. weak or bad cranking battery
2. corrosion on the fuse panel or fuse
3. ground problem

All of the dash lights, pumps and flasher work fine. Just no horn.

Am I overlooking anything? Is there any difference between and car horn and one for a boat? What can I spray on the fuse panel to remove the oxidation?

I hate electrical problems!

The problem is almost certainly the horn. Bad internal contacts. A horn is just a relay wired as a buzzer. Is there an adjustment screw on the horn? If so, try adjusting it one way or the other. That may fix it. Might want to do this with it directly wired to a battery (or battery charger). Also, a good solid battery voltage might improve the issue. If it does not work directly connected, it can never work through the normal wiring. The fact that the fuse does not work is incidental to the real issue.

TerryMSU

 

[Seon]

Re: Horn Stopped Working

Connect the horn directly to a battery. It'll either work or not

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Horn Stopped Working

Had the exact same problem.Bought a new horn and still got just the click sound out of it.
It ended up being a ground issue at the dash.The horn was getting 12volts but not a good ground..It was strange i was not having problems with anything else in the dash but cleaning all the wire terminals and the main ground fixed the problem.

 

[Skeeter Jeff63]

Re: Horn Stopped Working

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I checked the battery voltage, thoroughly cleaned the fuse panel and replaced all of the fuses, wired up the new marine horn and it worked, twice, then stopped. Noticed the dash lights would go dim when I hit the switch so I cleaned the battery terminals/wires and reconnected everything and it now works fine