lew Posted March 23, 2012 Author Report Posted March 23, 2012 The fuses are the push-in type with the wire running thru them and from what I can see their all OK. I broke my tester awhile ago RG but we're heading into town for dinner shortly so I'm gonna pick up another one. That's the fuse panel just to the left of center and up a bit. Paul, I'm gonna pull every fuse again tomorrow and take another very close look at them, but I honestly don't think I did anything to blow one. All the lights in the boat work fine as do the gas guages and the VHF radio. This is the maze of wires I'm sorting thru and it's FAR more confusing that what it appears here. The 2 orange & white wires at the horn switch And this is the horn with one orange & white wire on one terminal and a black on the other terminal. I'm gonna take a break from this now & take another shot at it tomorrow morning when my eyes stop being crossed from tracing wires all day. Appreciate everyones help on this.
aplumma Posted March 23, 2012 Report Posted March 23, 2012 Lew take the meter and go from ground to each of both of the wires one of them needs to give you 12 volts. That is the feed wire. If you do not have 12 volts to either wire then you have no power to the switch. Run a wire from the hot side of the battery to each of the wires one side of it should honk the horn. Take that wire and hook it to the switch. Then take the hot wire and put it to the other side of the switch. Push the switch and it will honk. If the statements are all true then you have lost power between the input of the switch and the fuse block. Find the fuse block and pull the fuse. Go from ground to the fuse block one side should read hot. If it does and it is the one for the horn then the fuse holder is damaged if the fuse reads good. You can call me if you want I will P.M. you my phone # . Art
esoxansteel Posted March 23, 2012 Report Posted March 23, 2012 I stay away from offering idvice on electrical issues, for one good reason, im a shock or fire lookin for a place to happen, but you Lew would be a good man to put the fire out, dont worry about the horn it will scare the muskies away anyways, a couple of good profanities will get there attention.
GbayGiant Posted March 23, 2012 Report Posted March 23, 2012 Find out which(white and orange) wire is your power with a tester. The other will be your switch leg. Test for continuity on your switch leg of the circut. It will be one of the wires which has the bad connection. It is not as hard as it sounds or confusing.
Dondorfish Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 (edited) Check both orange and white wires at the switch - if you have 12 volts at both wires - one is for the horn - and the other is for the light in the original switch. This happened to me before. Tracker ( Don ) Edited March 24, 2012 by Tracker
icceman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 It should be a simple repair. horn wires are postive and negative. the switch runs 12v to switch follwed by either orange or white wire. My guess orange being + and white being your ground. Run the other horn wire white, dirrectly to your ground bus bar or just try it directly to the ground side of the battery. To try horn attach directly to a 12v battery. The way you put wires on will not affect horn. If they are put on backwards changes direction of cone in horn. If you have any more issues feel free to pm me. I work as licensed truck mechanic so i feel i am giving you the proper answer. Hope this helps. My link
Skipper D Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 Well did you get to blow your horn this morning Lew ?
RSF Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 One of three things. First: I'd check the battery connections at the fuse box and if equipped, the main fuse at the battery. If in doubt--change them. When your sure there is power to the dashboard fuse box, again suggest touching (shorting) the two terminal clips together that attach to the horn switch using a screwdriver, horn should sound. If not, the switch is fine and you will need to follow the leads to the fuse box and Replace the fuse and while doing so look for corrosion, try shorting the two terminals to each other again, it should sound. If not, The relay's the culprit or connections at the horn. Very bizarre you say it worked before removing the rotory horm switch and not after hooking in the pulse button. I'll assume the rotary original had Only Two connectors attached.
Fisherman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 It should be a simple repair. horn wires are postive and negative. the switch runs 12v to switch follwed by either orange or white wire. My guess orange being + and white being your ground. Run the other horn wire white, dirrectly to your ground bus bar or just try it directly to the ground side of the battery. To try horn attach directly to a 12v battery. The way you put wires on will not affect horn. If they are put on backwards changes direction of cone in horn. If you have any more issues feel free to pm me. I work as licensed truck mechanic so i feel i am giving you the proper answer. Hope this helps. My link Go back and look at the pictures, the or/wh (orange/white stripe)wire goes to either side of the switch, it's positive. The other wire to the horn is black as per the picture, it's negative. Mechanic eh.
icceman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 Go back and look at the pictures, the or/wh (orange/white stripe)wire goes to either side of the switch, it's positive. The other wire to the horn is black as per the picture, it's negative. Mechanic eh. the picture was for illustartion purposes only. I do not need somebody questioning my abilities as the goverment was the one to give me an interprovincial license.
Fisherman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 the picture was for illustartion purposes only. I do not need somebody questioning my abilities as the goverment was the one to give me an interprovincial license. The pictures come from his boat, the or/wh is positive so I really don't know how you can get a positive and negative out of one wire that goes into and out of a simple switch. The negative is the black wire as shown in the horn picture.
icceman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 The pictures come from his boat, the or/wh is positive so I really don't know how you can get a positive and negative out of one wire that goes into and out of a simple switch. The negative is the black wire as shown in the horn picture. The pictures that where posted i can not see. Thus i retract what i have said. Just explaining from systems i have worked on. sorry steve
lew Posted March 24, 2012 Author Report Posted March 24, 2012 Morning fellas and yes, those pictures are from my boat. The 2 wires on the switch are both orange & white. There's 1 orange & white on the horn plus 1 black wire. Am I correct in assuming 1 orange and white comes from the fuse block to the switch, then the other orange & white goes from the switch to the horn and then the black comes from the horn and goes to ground ?? Is the ground on the fuse block or would it be somewhere else ?? I'm just trying to eliminate tracing more wires than necessary.
icceman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 Morning fellas and yes, those pictures are from my boat. The 2 wires on the switch are both orange & white. There's 1 orange & white on the horn plus 1 black wire. Am I correct in assuming 1 orange and white comes from the fuse block to the switch, then the other orange & white goes from the switch to the horn and then the black comes from the horn and goes to ground ?? Is the ground on the fuse block or would it be somewhere else ?? I'm just trying to eliminate tracing more wires than necessary. sounds like you got it right to me
icceman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 remember ground is never to body of boat it will be to battery.
skeeter Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 Some times the fuses are good, but they dont make a good connection in the fuse panel. Pull the fuse back out and see if there is any corrosion on the prongs at all. Then put it back in and wiggle it around.
Tybo Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 (edited) OK Lew.Trace the lines back from the horn.Since there is no ground at the switch,there is a good chance it has a relay in the circuit. If there is a relay there a strong chance the problem is in that area. There also the chance that when you where moving the wires around that the strands broke down and you no longer cane get enough amps threw. The ground will go to a common buses bar most likely on the fuss panel Edited March 24, 2012 by Tybo
Tybo Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 Off track. Whats the proper name for a electric horn.
Jer Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 Off track. Whats the proper name for a electric horn. Sound engine? Wait, it's electric...must be sound motor.
lew Posted March 24, 2012 Author Report Posted March 24, 2012 Well, I finally got the horn problem solved. I broke my test light awhile back so I had to get a new one and once I had the light it didn't take too long to figure things out. I pulled both leads off the switch and with the test light I found I had power to one of them so that eliminated a blown fuse. I ran a wire from the live lead up to the horn and when I touched the wire to the horn connection it sounded. As was suggested many times here it looked like a bad connection somewhere so I started checking everything again. All the wires for the dash switches come from the fuse block and go into a plastic plug. The wires from the switches go into another plug and then to 2 plugs snap together. I pulled the plug apart and everything seemed good but on the outside I could see one of the horn leads appeared to have pulled loose just a little bit. The end of the wire has a metal sleeve on it and I pushed it back in and tested it and the horn worked. I pushed the wire in tighter and wrapped it with tape to be sure it didn't come out again. From the angle I was originally working I couldn't see the back of the plug but once I pulled it apart and turned it around the problem became obvious. I hooked up the new push button switch and got it installed thru the back of the dash. And now everything is working just like it's sposed to. What would normally be a very simple job that should have only taken me 10 minutes turned out to be a bit more confusing but now I'm back in business once again and the push button is much better than the old twist knob. Thank you VERY much to everyone that offered suggestions both here and thru emails. Your a good group !!
ecmilley Posted March 24, 2012 Report Posted March 24, 2012 good to see you got it figured out Lew, i imagine your gonna get the boat out now and catch some bait. Next time just call me, youngs point is a nice little drive from here when you want to play with your electrical system
lew Posted March 24, 2012 Author Report Posted March 24, 2012 Next time just call me, youngs point is a nice little drive from here when you want to play with your electrical system Appreciate the offer Ernie, but you know you don't need a reason to come over, your always welcome here.
SirWhite Posted March 25, 2012 Report Posted March 25, 2012 The switch IS the relay. Its def got to be a loose connection. Your gonna have to follow the wiring and find where it came loose. *Head nod*
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