ECN Electrical Forum
Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals

It always feels good to fabricate a part that is unobtainable. The trick is figuring what you have to break apart to find the right piece of material you need for that contact spring but being in the electrical biz, that may not be too hard. The automobile industry also uses a lot of that kind of material. Older is probably better so a trip to the junk yard may be in order.

Here she is. [click to enlarge].

That is a fine looking machine. You really want to keep that as original as possible.

Up at the hospital 0820 this a.m. for the annual Tour de Ward Trente-Cinq cardio and cashectomy sca m n. Sprang lightly up to the 4th floor, got gunked and wired up and did 11 minutes 30 on the exercise bike. Legs went a bit wonky near the end, but all is working AOK so I rewarded myself by staggering to the nearest café for a light repas of choc-breads, hot butter croissants and coffee with those big brown-sugar crystals to crunch....

Started on the horn repair as soon as I got home. I shear-cut a few blanks from 0.015” phosphor-bronze shim, filed to size and drilled for the shafts by super-gluing blanks to an offcut of oak. Bored through, peeled off the finished blades then hammered them flat. I always make spares with multi-setup jobs, just in case. Stripped out the whole switch to get better access. [ Apologies, but pics at this step all failed! ]

[click all pics to enlarge]
STRIPPED OUT SWITCH.


CIRCUIT DIAGRAM, PIC 2. The 3 blade contacts for the horn go between #118 [Blanc/White] through a blade pair to a 3rd sprung blade and then to [Violet/Purple] #110. The horn button closes contacts with a central sprung-shaft running in bakelite insulation.


PIC 3. Rebuilt and refitted assembly. The new blades can be seen just left of the violet sleeved connector. A new 25A fuse [red] is fitted on the original copper suspension arms just in front of the switch assy.


PIC 4. View of dash. Re-assembled horn push at center of rotary switch for lights etc, just to the left of the general electric-isolater pullswitch. The fuel heater button is at right below, with the oil & charge indicator lamps above. Temp gauge, [hidden], far right.


All finished by tea-time and well worth the extra effort. Eggs, fries, mushrooms, peas and bacon tonight, with bread-and-butter pudding. Yum!

Thanks for the old pictures, I remember those crazy head pieces. My mom used to use them when she did her hair.