37 pickup horns

K

Knoxville9

Junior Member
I ordered two horns from the early ford store for my 37 pickup, after receiving them it says they are for a big truck like commercial. Well the site never said that and I wasn't sure if they were the same so I decided to bench test them for fun either way. Well the first one didn't make a noise and the second made a groaning noise barely loud. I cleaned the terminals and tried both my 6 volt jumper box as well as wires straight from my battery. These are marked 6 volt horns for my application is there something I'm missing that maybe they need mounted for a better ground. I've contacted the early ford store and they gave me the run around to some Indian and never called me back. So before I call and get angry I figured I'd ask here.
 
I restored a '37 Ford pickup many years ago.. If my memory is working correctly, the '37 pickups used the same externally mounted horns as the '35 passenger cars and '35-36 pickups. As a general rule there was only one horn mounted under the headlight pod on the right fender..
I don't recall the early vehicles, prior to about '40 needing a horn relay.. Could be wrong about that...
 
Just checked the wiring diagrams and a 37 doesn't show a relay and the 40 does. So, sounds about right. I will check 38 and 39.
 
Both the 38 and 39 wiring diagrams show a relay, so if the diagrams are correct Ford starting using horn relays in 1938.
 
blucar said:
I restored a '37 Ford pickup many years ago.. If my memory is working correctly, the '37 pickups used the same externally mounted horns as the '35 passenger cars and '35-36 pickups. As a general rule there was only one horn mounted under the headlight pod on the right fender..
I don't recall the early vehicles, prior to about '40 needing a horn relay.. Could be wrong about that...
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Looked at some photos online. There are several showing two horns, one on each side. They are calling them "deluxe" pickups. Did the pickups come in standard and deluxe models or are these just custom upgrades.
 
Horns are the same PU or Big truck patterned after 1935 passenger design but with a painted cover and commercial mount brackets. These horns need to be carefully adjusted and have a good ground circuit to operate efficiently.
 
Well after using a thicker gauge wire to test the horns straight from the battery they do in fact work. Not sure why the jumper box wouldn't work but anyhow how are these mounted? I just ordered the bracket kit and wiring extension but where do they actually mount? Any pics?
 
As I recall the headlights are mounted to the fender via three carriage head type bolts in kind or a triangle pattern. The front center bolt has a hole through it for the headlight wire. This same bolt attaches the horn bracket.. I can picture the whole affair in my head, just don't have an actual photo..
I don't recall there being Deluxe or a standard models in the pre '50 models of trucks. Ford did have a lot of accessories for the pickups, Generally speaking, all of the Ford accessories were dealer installed up through the '50's. I worked in new car prep in a Ford Dealership in the '50's..
 
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The 35-37 pickups use the same headlite to fender bracket and bolt as 33-34 pass cars. The horn/vibration bracket is unique to the 35-37 pickups and different from both the 33-34 or 35 passenger cars. Also the horns Ford used were supplied by different manufacturers (Sparton and Schwartze come to mind) and although the externals look similar, the internals and sound are very different.

blucar said:
As I recall the headlights are mounted to the fender via three carriage head type bolts in kind or a triangle pattern. The front center bolt has a hole through it for the headlight wire. This same bolt attaches the horn bracket.. I can picture the whole affair in my head, just don't have an actual photo..
I don't recall there being Deluxe or a standard models in the pre '50 models of trucks. Ford did have a lot of accessories for the pickups, Generally speaking, all of the Ford accessories were dealer installed up through the '50's. I worked in new car prep in a Ford Dealership in the '50's..
Click to expand...
 

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please find enclosed images of my `37 1/2 ton, the re-pop horn brackets are not the original configuration and may not work. the bracket on my truck is the factory bracket, the left side is not to hard to find... the right side is tough to find.
tom

P1010006_zps4ec61099.jpg
 
My light stands don't look like that... I'll post a picture but I'm thinking my grandfather used a different year maybe
 
Lawson, didn't the 36 deluxe have a chrome radiator shell and maybe a sliding rear window as well as a few other treats ? Just a curious old guy !
 
Seems like there was no Deluxe 35 pickup but you sure see a lot of them that were made to look like a Deluxe when restored. The Deluxe 36 had a chrome windshield frame, two wiper motors, two horns, chromed grill, had the dual gauges, the rear slider window may or may not have been on all Deluxes from what I have seen/read, may or may not have had a banjo steering wheel depending upon when built during the model year, and then there were dealer installed options which may have included the locking spare, radio, heater, and the like. Maybe someone who has access to the dealer book can answer whether they had the sun visors on one or both sides or if those were also dealer options...
The 37 had a Deluxe, but the entire grill was not chromed, just the bars and there was a map light built into the passenger side wiper motor cover, stainless pieces on the hood sides, and Deluxe gauges and speedo with 37 having an instrument cluster not two dual gauges. I am probably leaving off things...there were bumper guards and a grill guard available and I suspect some people had spotlights installed on pickups by the dealer as well as fog lights and the like.
 
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