Raritan (Fiamm) horns no longer work

[jim rosenthal]

As part of my painting adventures on my boat, we unscrewed the bells (trumpets) of the Raritan horns, which have been on my boat since new. There is a little compressor in the bridge which powers them. They've always worked fine. When we screwed the trumpets back on today, and I hit the button, I could hear the compressor spinning, and air is going through the tubing to the horns, but no sound comes out. We tried screwing them in and out- nothing.

I'll have to go through them piece by piece (compressor, tubing, diaphragms, etc) but I would welcome any suggestions or ideas. A friend had similar horns which required new diaphragms, which he made of plastic, since evidently spares for these are NLA.

Any ideas?

 

[wmfels]

Give them a blast of compressed air maybe?

 

[rwetherington]

you may have screwed the trumpets on to tight. You have to tune the horns.

 

[OBXTucker]

Going for that squeaky helium sound, eh Jim?!
Roger is correct though (as usual), loosen them up a little.

 

[sdowney717]

You might find the old diaphragms are cracked.
If you can find some thin metal you can make new diaphragms.
Plastic for this what type did they use?

I had a set of these FIAM horns with compressor and changed them out for twin electric horns with no compressor which for me is more reliable.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I'll try again on them, when I can find a helper. They have always been reliable- worked every time, until this.

 

[fissioneng]

you may have screwed the trumpets on to tight. You have to tune the horns.

I had this problem this spring. Solved as Roger says. I took them off and tuned them using an air compressor, then tightened the lock nuts. Put them back on and they sound sweet again.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

I bought new Fiamm horns from their USA distributer. They are in Cadillac Michigan. They don't have the quality or blaring sound of the originals, but the price was right and they work very well.

 

[Fanfare]

I used Fiamm horns on a car, would disconnect the horn end and use the compressor to blow up air matresses and kid's toys. Just remember the compressor only puts out about 30-35 psi, so don't blow yours up using high pressure air.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Yeah, I fiddled with the horns, trying them in a few different depths, and no luck. Right now I don't have time to get serious and go through the whole system. But I will, and get them working again. I just wish it hadn't gotten added to the list, the list is so long already.