As usual one of my Voxbell horns has stopped working. This happens approx once every year, less lately as I don't wash the bike much these days. It was converted to be held together years ago with nuts and bolts from the std rivets and usually, I pull it apart and sand the rust off the points and adjust the Philips head screw and I get another year out of it. This time I am going a bit deeper. I am going to give the internals a soak in CRC Rust Remover Gel and hopefully slow this rust growth down. But I don't know if after that it will need some Electrical Contact Cleaner to get it honking again. I mount it with the drain holes vertically and after seeing how much rust there is where the wiring connects that's going up top as well so water doesn't seep in there. Any tips for getting more long-term fixes would be helpful. It's a shame the internals are not made in better non-rustable materials.
Horn Refurb.
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
The Sock
Hero member
- Location
- London, England
This may help, Vince.
The Sock
Hero member
- Location
- London, England
This should work, 
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The Sock
Hero member
- Location
- London, England
Well-spotted, Piet.
A typo, now corrected.
A typo, now corrected.
ViagraWow, M3x100mm screws... 3 horns in a row?
piet
After some thought, I now have a plan. Step 1 water based rust dissolver, Step 2 Electrical contact cleaner to remove Step 1, Step 3 dielectric grease so I don't need to do this in a year's time. https://www.thedrive.com/maintenance-repair/39173/dielectric-grease
CRC 2-26 Vince, clean and lube, CRC CO cleaner is aggressive and removes most oils, post CO treatment with CRC 2-26. Buy it while you can, Australian and world class products. Unsure what you describe as a suitable "grease" have you something in mind? j ***All the above are on the shelf at Electrical Wholesalers or WES components at Ashfield.
Just clicked on your link Vince, rare you get something for nothing in the world of electrics and electronics. Retaining of dust particles in the grease was my concern in the day. Try it out Vince, would all the same investigate the melting point of this "grease" ie high ambient road temperatures ( above motor ) may cause some liquification properties. Not a lot to lose all the same, you ride them you fix them....j
Just clicked on your link Vince, rare you get something for nothing in the world of electrics and electronics. Retaining of dust particles in the grease was my concern in the day. Try it out Vince, would all the same investigate the melting point of this "grease" ie high ambient road temperatures ( above motor ) may cause some liquification properties. Not a lot to lose all the same, you ride them you fix them....j
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Andy
Hero member
- Location
- Auckland, roughly
A thin wipe of grease is always a good idea to improve connections and resist corrosion. Any grease will do, we’re only talking about 12volts so it isn’t critical to specifically use dielectric grease, but it never hurts to use the best available products
Here’s a longer explanation from someone who isn’t selling anything but actually works in the field: https://www.w8ji.com/dielectric_grease_vs_conductive_grease.htm
Good reference material there Andy, mostly aligns with my working life, from DC to Light is the saying. Notable however was the terminating of aluminium steel cored HV cables. Treated cable ends had conductive gel from GE applied and crimped quickly, the formation of aluminium oxide occures rapidly. In Telephone exchanges the thermal conductive paste in the day was banned, it migrated into the air and contaminated the relay contacts, forming an intermittent insulating barrier. None of this is relevant to this topic as such, other than the old adage, fix one problem and get another.A thin wipe of grease is always a good idea to improve connections and resist corrosion. Any grease will do, we’re only talking about 12volts so it isn’t critical to specifically use dielectric grease, but it never hurts to use the best available products
Here’s a longer explanation from someone who isn’t selling anything but actually works in the field: https://www.w8ji.com/dielectric_grease_vs_conductive_grease.htm
Did work in many fields, RF and HV included, overhead 330Kv transmission systems included. Mostly just memories now days. j
I now have 2 working horns again. I lucked out with the Philps head horn adjuster screw, it usually takes a while to find the correct tension, did it first go. The rust dissolver was interesting, I couldn't clean it off. I tried electrical contact cleaner, either, kero, degreaser and none worked and then I tried WATER, its water-based and buggar me it washes off with water. Hit it again with contact cleaner and let it dry in the sun for an hour and all good. I will try that rust dissolver on my chain adjusters and rear drum brake link rods and toque arm and get rid of the rust on them as well.
Vince,
How about coating the horn internals with a conservating wax spray? Spray it over everything and clean it off the electrical contacts only. Should keep rust at bay forever. The stuff will eventually dry, not attracting dust ect. Not much heat develops when beeping the horn, so it shouldn't melt all that quickly either.
I use this stuff a lot when storing metal spare parts, saves me wrapping and bagging all the bits. Spares tend to lie around for a few years before they're re-visited... Washes off easily with the solvent in my parts washer, brake cleaner, turps, kero, petrol, what-have-you.
piet
How about coating the horn internals with a conservating wax spray? Spray it over everything and clean it off the electrical contacts only. Should keep rust at bay forever. The stuff will eventually dry, not attracting dust ect. Not much heat develops when beeping the horn, so it shouldn't melt all that quickly either.
I use this stuff a lot when storing metal spare parts, saves me wrapping and bagging all the bits. Spares tend to lie around for a few years before they're re-visited... Washes off easily with the solvent in my parts washer, brake cleaner, turps, kero, petrol, what-have-you.
piet
Yep, thats good gear Peit, use it to spray all the hard to get to places on the frame when they come back from painters/powdercoaters.
stops the insides of the frame tubes rusting .
