gettin' horn-y

["Jeff Wheeler" <j_dubbya@msn.com>]

Sorry about the cornball subject; I hadn't reached my stupidity quota for the 
day yet.

Thought I'd pass along an experience that may be news to no one but myself, 
but about which I'm nonetheless tickled.  I once asked a buddy of mine who's a 
savior of ailing cars if he knew of anything that could be done to fix a 
nonfunctioning air horn.  He said that typically, they just need lubrication 
(notice I'm leaving the double entendre opportunity well alone here).  
Equipped with this knowledge, I set forth to have at the mostly inert hooter 
(it only made a slight "ticka-ticka" sound when a button was pressed).

One 13mm bolt and a harness unplugging later, the dual unit was in hand.  I 
started with the intellectual approach -- I shot the (what IS that word for 
the open end of a horn?) open ends of the horns full o' WD-40.  Nothing.

Undaunted, I reexamined the assembly, and noticed each horn had a little 
plastic cylinder mounted on it.  Messing with them caused them to come off 
relatively easily in my hand, and beneath them I discovered little Torx bolts. 
 The cylinders had been held in place with what appeared to be some sort of 
Teflon/silicon solidified goo, which I surmised was there to keep out 
moisture.

I removed them, and repeated my spraying efforts.  They didn't hold much.  
Tried the buttons again.  Diddly.  Replaced the Torx bolts.  BLAAAATTTT!!!

Nifty.  Thinking on it further, I think that maybe these bolts may be used to 
adjust the pitch, but I haven't experimented with that yet.  I noted that they 
went back in further than they were in the first place, so I backed off them a 
bit.

So, was this news only to me?

After that, I cobbled together a means for ensuring that my ventilation 
control mechanism not didn't either bind against itself, come disengaged from 
the vacuum valve, or shatter into a gazillion pieces, but I've had to do that 
with the last two I had, and assume most of you have too, so I'll not bore you 
with it.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to scirocco-L-request@privateI.com,
with your request (subscribe, unsubscribe) in the BODY of the message.