Car Horn

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Horn died on the car, purchased replacement, didn't work.

Horn connector cable on the car tested to ensure it has power so tested the new horn off the battery with jump leads and no sound.

Connected live to fixing plate and tapped each connector with the neutral.

Am I doing something wrong or is the new horn knackered? (Odds are I'm doing something wrong).

Thanks in advance for any advice.  

Mildly_Miffed

One of those terminals will be +ve, the other -ve, or are you expecting it to earth through the bracket?

Do you have one or two terminals on your loom? Are you getting 12v between them, or between the one terminal and earth?

tedted

one lead to one of the spades and the other lead to the other,fixing bracket is just that

forgotmyname

Tapped the fixing plate with positive?  You may have blown the fuse, although does your horn work with the engine off?

2 connectors is one positive and one negative or is it a two tone horn where each terminal offers a different sound and the
bracket is the negative?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Thanks for the replies, sorry to add horn says it's suitable for both a single or a twin connector, car only has single connector.

Mildly_Miffed said:

One of those terminals will be +ve, the other -ve, or are you expecting it to earth through the bracket?

Yes was informed Earth is bracket, not sure about + and - , beyond my scope of knowledge, which is very limited! 

tedted said:

one lead to one of the spades and the other lead to the other,fixing bracket is just that

Youtube vids show to connect to bracket + spade to test? 

forgotmyname said:

Tapped the fixing plate with positive?  You may have blown the fuse

Horn isn't connected to the car, is just being tested off the battery  

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Just to add, someone stopped by and tested it with a little box type thing (as I say my knowledge is lacking) and the conclusion seems to be the new horn is dead... 

paul_c123

If the car only has a single connector then it likely earthed the previous one through the bracket. The new one would need the other terminal earthed to complete the circuit. It may still be dead though, obviously.

Of course, the other possible issue is that the wiring or a connector is broken, so while you can test with a multimeter and see 12V at the terminal, when any load is put on, it can't supply the amps required to sound the horn.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

paul_c123 said:

If the car only has a single connector then it likely earthed the previous one through the bracket. The new one would need the other terminal earthed to complete the circuit. It may still be dead though, obviously.

Thanks Paul, the old horn was the same as this, two connectors, one on the left connected with a metal clip, the other was just encased in plastic 

paul_c123 said:

Of course, the other possible issue is that the wiring or a connector is broken, so while you can test with a multimeter and see 12V at the terminal, when any load is put on, it can't supply the amps required to sound the horn.

Thanks for this, visual inspection suggests cable is OK, only way to tell I guess is replace the cable/connector if another horn also doesn't work but based on the above I'd expect the new horn to sound off the battery? Or are you saying connect positive from battery to one pin and neutral to other pin and ignore bracket? 

Sadly our other car, on which the horn works, has a completely different connector so can't test the horn via that... 

Seems it's always the simple things that cause the biggest headache.