1945 Ford Pickup Horn Relay

will.rynerson

will.rynerson

Senior Member
Hi all,

I’m trying to locate the original Horn Relay mounting location. My relay was missing. A picture would be wonderful if you can.

Thanks Will
 
Dang, on all my jailbar trucks I wired in a horn relay before the horn. So, in other words I just run a sender wire to this type of horn?
 
Wait a second. This defies what I know about electricity. A relay, by it's nature, is just a switch that allows a circuit to carry more power. The extra power usually comes from a shorter, heavier wire that is connected to the relay. Are you saying that there are two wires going to each horn? (Both an "activator" wire and a "power" wire.)

What am I missing here?
 
tubman said:
Wait a second. This defies what I know about electricity. A relay, by it's nature, is just a switch that allows a circuit to carry more power. The extra power usually comes from a shorter, heavier wire that is connected to the relay. Are you saying that there are two wires going to each horn? (Both an "activator" wire and a "power" wire.)

What am I missing here?
Click to expand...

Exactly. It wouldn’t make any sense to locate a relay at the horn button. The relay should be located close to the horn itself, and only it’s activation circuit at the horn button.
 
Not much on the subject of electricity, but It's beginning to make sense that the horn would need a heavy wire to get it's power from. Good catch. I think that's some kind of 'coil' under the dome.
 
Yeah, I don’t think you have a relay on that 45 pickup. My 41 is similar and I believe it uses the same or similar horn. As I understand it, the horn on pickups runs off just the battery and ground through the horn button.

Here’s your wiring diagram from Van Pelts website:

Flathead_Electrical_wiring1946-47truck.jpg
 
Passenger cars had horn relays. The pickups did not. Your pickup doesn’t have a relay mounting location because it never had one.
 
Will, I think the confusion is because you are looking at a passenger car diagram. You just have to cross reference that with one for a pickup.
 
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