Early Horn Fitting

[Tony Press]

I always believed that the Benjamin Horn was attached to the firewall with a z bracket until replaced by the Rist which was then fitted to the strut between the cowl and the firewall on a two bolt bracket alongside the bonnet bracket.   

But- strictly for Anoraks- I was told yesterday that the Benjamin and Rist Horns were briefly fixed to the Cylinder Head !

At first I was not sure but I then checked this out-  in The Original Austin Seven, page 65, there is a picture of the engine bay of a 1926 R Saloon showing clearly a Benjamin Horn attached to the two offside rear head studs, then Wyatt - illustration 26 1928 Tourer (facing page 65), also shows a Rist Horn  fitted to the two offside rear studs.

I am not sure how long this head fitting lasted but the Spare Parts books don't appear to show the Benjamin Horn being supplied with a two bolt bracket.

As an interesting aside my 1929 Australian bodied fabric saloon has an 'old stock' Benjamin horn on the strut between the cowl and the firewall on a two bolt bracket which I assume would match the head stud spacing, instead of a Rist which would be usual.

Cheers, Tony.

[Timothy P]

Hello Tony,
This is very interesting as though I knew the rist had been mounted to the head, I didn't realise the benjamin had too. With this in mind a couple of days ago when this benjamin popped up on ebay (LINK), I was intrigued to see the bracket more known for the rist (which would mount to the cylinder head). Picture below...


  s-l500.jpg (Size: 21.55 KB / Downloads: 187)

This sounds like what you have on your '29 Tony, so this 'could' be an original head mounted benjamin?

[Douglas Alderson]

Have a look at the horn in this photo from Austin Harris execlent website.
   

[Marcus Ling]

Have a look at the horn in this photo from Austin Harris execlent website.

Hi Tony,

Here is a photo of my Benjamin horn, the mounting hole line up exactly with the head studs, as does the bracket on my Rist horn.