Horn rod dismantling

[hazelhoff]

Being a purist i would like to take a horn rod/switch apart to have the switch renickeled. Question is, how to take the switch and the rod apart ? They seem to be pressed together ...

[Dale G.]

Hazelhoff,

First off, your light switch is in two parts, upper and lower. It is cadmium plated not nickle. Clean out all grease and oil. If it is surfaced rusted, then gently bead blast the outer portions. Take it to your plater to cadmium plate or zinc plate. Do not remove any of the inner parts. It will plate nicely.
Your horn rod comes apart like this. First remove any grease or oil on the rod. Look at the lower end, use a soldering gun, put it on the end, use a small pair of pliers to hold the little brass cup, stick the solder gun on the end, when the solder melts, pull the little brass cup off at the same time. Save this little cup because you will want to reuse it again. You will see there is an insulator there that little brass cup sits in, pull it off the bare wire. If this insulator is not cracked or broken, then you can reuse it. If broken, you will have to use a new insulator provided in the repair kit. Now the other end, the horn button end, you will see you have four tabs crimped down. You must lift these tabs up carefully until they are straight. Have someone hold the rod upside down and carefully tap the horn button ring on the tabs. Tap down until the tabs are down as far as they will go, the use a small screwdriver a tap the tabs a little farther. Now turn the rod over and you will see that there is now a little space to wedge your screwdriver in the horn button ring take it the rest of the way out. When the ring comes off, you will see the horn button comes off with a coil spring under it. With these pieces off, pull the horn wire out of the rod. If your wire looks good and the insulation on the wire look good, then reuse it. If the plating on the light switch looks good, that will be good for you, if the plating has disappeared, then this part gets replated chrome along with the horn button ring. A word of caution, the light switch head is aluminum. Some plating shops can't plate aluminum. The horn button ring is brass and can be chrome plated easily. After you get all this done, then you are ready to re-assemble. Get a horn repair kit, preferably from Bratton's and follow all directions as to how to put it back together.
This is about as brief as I can get. Go to it!!!

[forever4]

Originally Posted by hazelhoff

Being a purist i would like to take a horn rod/switch apart to have the switch renickeled. Question is, how to take the switch and the rod apart ? They seem to be pressed together ...

I just had it replated without disassembling it.
They are swaged together and it would be very difficult to successfully disassemble and reassemble.

The rod is steel and the handle is die cast aluminum.
Original plating is nickel (chrome in 1932)

[hazelhoff]

Forever4

Today i delivered it at the shop to have it renickled. Actually they expect they only have to remove the chrome and nickle will appear.

[René W]

Originally Posted by hazelhoff

Forever4

Today i delivered it at the shop to have it renickled. Actually they expect they only have to remove the chrome and nickle will appear.

Henk where did you bring it for plating?

[hazelhoff]

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Hey Rene, I use verchromen.nl. FRank is the boss, he takes his stuff to Slowakia. They do it old fashioned way. Still allowed overthere .... Grinding, silvering pits, copper, grinding, more copper, nickle, chrome. Not cheap, but great quality !
Today i delivered my bumpers, and some ineterior stuff.
Look at his website and see how Slowakian workers do what we had 40 years ago !
Henk

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by hazelhoff

Forever4

Today i delivered it at the shop to have it renickled. Actually they expect they only have to remove the chrome and nickle will appear.

I have a mint speedometer bezel that was chrome plated. I layed the bezel on the sink and brushed muriatic acid on the chrome. In one minute the chrome turned dark, and I thought maybe I ruined the part, but I rinsed it under hot water, and a beautiful layer of nickel was now showing.

One lesson I learned though, DO NOT do this inside the house. The fumes are very bad and can damage things close by, as well as your lungs.

[René W]

Originally Posted by hazelhoff

Hey Rene, I use verchromen.nl. FRank is the boss, he takes his stuff to Slowakia. They do it old fashioned way. Still allowed overthere .... Grinding, silvering pits, copper, grinding, more copper, nickle, chrome. Not cheap, but great quality !
Today i delivered my bumpers, and some ineterior stuff.
Look at his website and see how Slowakian workers do what we had 40 years ago !
Henk

I know them.
I had several badly pitted items renickeld by Metamorfose in Reuver Limburg
http://www.chroomtechnologie.nl/over...ontactgegevens
They did a wonderful job,not to expansive and done in 2 weeks.
These are the motorcycle parts they have done

[jm29henry]

Craig Ricker from Ohio does a great job great price

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by jm29henry

Craig Ricker from Ohio does a great job great price

Do you have an address for Craig? Thanks

[hazelhoff]

Rene, I know metamorfose and agree with tou. They did my moped wheels.

Henk