Air Horn Solenoid parts question

[ZZ4x4]

My air horn had just one trumpet working so I disassembled the thing and cleaned out some debris from the diaphragm. The good news is that while injecting compressed air into the inlet, now both sides honk. However, in an effort to make sure everything was clean I unscrewed the end of the solenoid actuator but somehow lost hold and dropped everything. I have a few parts and I'm not sure how they go back together.

I have the hollow solenoid body, a bullet shaped chrome part with rubber end, a small black plastic disk and the screw in actuator end with oring. I am thinking maybe a spring is missing and maybe the black disk is not really part of the assembly. Nevertheless I put it back together with the disk in and with it out. The horn sounds continuously with the disk out and wont turn on at all with disk in.

Has anyone had their solenoid apart and knows how this thing goes back together?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Suprman]

There is a little spring that goes in the end of the slug piece (chrome bullet) you can see a little hole on the end where it sits in. It looks like a pen spring. The other end has a rubber piece that seals the airflow. When you honk the horn the slug pulls back and air flows to the horns. You can go to harbor freight and get a generic spring kit. Find a thin weak one you may have to cut it down a little to give the right amount of springiness. I haven't seen a black plastic piece in the ones I took apart.

 

[ZZ4x4]

There is a little spring that goes in the end of the slug piece (chrome bullet) you can see a little hole on the end where it sits in. It looks like a pen spring. The other end has a rubber piece that seals the airflow. When you honk the horn the slug pulls back and air flows to the horns. You can go to harbor freight and get a generic spring kit. Find a thin weak one you may have to cut it down a little to give the right amount of springiness. I haven't seen a black plastic piece in the ones I took apart.

Thanks a ton. I thought there should be a spring to push the rubber end of the slug against the hole. That black disk was on the floor but not sure it wasn't just garbage from something else.
I'll look again for a tiny spring.

 

[IsaLandr]

This thread is pretty old, but I just have to chime in here and say that using the search function to find this thread saved my bacon. Like the original poster, I took apart the solenoid, and subsequently dropped it. I just knew there should be a spring in there, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the ground and other internet searching, including the Handley site, was not productive.

One search on Steel Soldiers later, and the answer was right here all along. Thank you, Suprman, for this valuable information. My air horns are now back fully functional and all is right with Biff.

Oh, and just a quick aside... Those two ground wires that run to one of the bolts on the air horn mount? They really are important. The bloody warning siren/buzzer thing won't shut up if those grounds aren't properly connected. Learned that one the hard way.

Thanks again! This site is the best resource there is for our horrible addiction.