I don't know what happened. The horn was working fine the other day and now it's comparable to nails on a chalkboard!
I swapped out batteries but doing so had no effect. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Hi Zack. Time to acquaint yourself with the ease of fixing a Lionel postwar horn. Just go online and google "Fix a postwar Lionel horn". It's easier than one thinks. Make sure you have a good set of fairly thin-bladed screwdrivers, a soldering gun (if you need it) w/flux and solder, a little extra wiring (again, if you need it) and a hand big enough to reach around back and pat yourself for learning how easy it is. You may also want to - carefully - adjust the unslotted screw on the horn itself - it determines whether your horn squawks, bleats or sounds as full as it can get. A little twist goes a long way with this screw - if all else is good, this screw determines quality of horn sound. Play with it for a while until you get good at finding the exact point at which the horn sounds best. It's worth it.
Virginian65 posted:Hi Zack. Time to acquaint yourself with the ease of fixing a Lionel postwar horn. Just go online and google "Fix a postwar Lionel horn". It's easier than one thinks. Make sure you have a good set of fairly thin-bladed screwdrivers, a soldering gun (if you need it) w/flux and solder, a little extra wiring (again, if you need it) and a hand big enough to reach around back and pat yourself for learning how easy it is. You may also want to - carefully - adjust the unslotted screw on the horn itself - it determines whether your horn squawks, bleats or sounds as full as it can get. A little twist goes a long way with this screw - if all else is good, this screw determines quality of horn sound. Play with it for a while until you get good at finding the exact point at which the horn sounds best. It's worth it.
Boy, looks like that will take some time to disassemble and clean! I'll get on it first thing tomorrow evening and reply with the results when it's all back together!
Got the horn back together and it works great! Nothing seemed out of place or dirty, I still cleaned up the contact points and interior in general. It still has an occasional crackle but other than that it's back to normal!
