Airhorns

happy days

happy days

Active Member
Was not going to bother with them but the last 2 shows we have been to er indoors has had her ears battered with other cars airhorns and says we must get some,so me being a modern husband willing to listen to her I have bought some. Oh dear no fitting instructions for the wiring (an electrician i am not) so my question :-
I have a relay supplied with the kit, now my plan is to take the feed from the fuse box to a spare switch i have beside HRW switch, now back out of the switch into the relay, the from the relay to the compressor is that correct. I have found vague fitting instructions for fitting but they use original horn wire which I do not want to do any help appreciated. cheers Mick
 
Are there any markings on the relay? i.e. a piccy, or numbers as in C1, C2 or whatever?

Richard
 
Hi Richard , I think inane that bit sorted it's just is the wire from fusebox straight to switch or does it go through the relay to the switch. Am not at the car so can put a pic on when I'm home later if needed
 
happy days said:
Hi Richard , I think inane that bit sorted it's just is the wire from fusebox straight to switch or does it go through the relay to the switch. Am not at the car so can put a pic on when I'm home later if needed
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter which way round it goes to the switch/relay, but you do need two circuits.

One to fire the relay, <fusebox - switch - relay - earth>, and one to blow the horns <fusebox - relay (other circuit) - horn compressor - earth>

Are you replacing the horns on your car, or are these musical thingies?

Richard
 
I've got air horns on my TR4 - you need to give people a good blast sometimes - especially as you're so low and potentially vulnerable!

I would suggest that you watch your current if you're plumbing into the fuse box, make sure that the fuse will cope with the current draw from the other appliances on that fuse. Now mine is old (circa 1970) but when operating draws 10+ Amps. A standard Lucas 35 amp fuse is actually 17 Amp continuous, 35 amp surge (temporary).

You might find that if your existing horns (but I don't have the wiring diagram / fuse value to hand), but if suitable (wiring/fuse), connecting to the same fuse might be worthwhile as you're not going to be blowing both horns at the same time.

Make sure your horn switch doesn't latch, it must act like a normal horn switch!

As others have said.......

Fuse - relay (connections 85 - 86) - compressor - earth
Fuse - relay (connections 30 - 87) - switch - earth

Are they musical? that would have different wiring.

Bri.
 
Mick, how have you fitted the horns into the engine bay? I have an old set of La Cucaracha horns I had on my Vanguard and there is no way I could get all the trumpets into my engine bay. I am toying with fitting a Stebel Nautilus horn though.

John
 
Hi john, just bought the ones you had, 5 trumpets and a compressor. Think i can get them all in, just no idea with the wiring so getting advice from those who know. Couple of days off so thought I would try
 
Hi Richard and Bri and anyone else who can help,here are some pics of the relay
DSCF2044.jpg

DSCF2042.jpg

DSCF2041.jpg


Will actually need an idiots guide sorry but as a plumber dont normally touch electrics (water and electricity dont go well together)
 
Mick,
I think mine wouldn't fit due to two problems
1, the angle iron framework they were still bolted to resembled a farm gate, and
2, I have no patience!

John.
 
Its a fairly simple wiring diagram

Take a 12V source, from the fuse box if you wish, and take it to the switch, then onto 86 on the relay.

Take a wire from 85 to earth

These two form the switch (A relay is just a heavy duty switch and these two turn it on)

Take the main power feed, from the fuse box, to power input - 30 on the relay.

Take a wire from 87 (power output) to the positive side of the compressor, then negative side to earth.

If your car has the same fuse for the horn as the cigar lighter, then the ampage should be enough for the compressor, although I would check the power of it before wiring it up just in case.

That's about it.

Best of luck fitting those horns under the bonnet :shock:

Richard
 

Attachments

  • horns.png
    horns.png
    10.3 KB · Views: 687
Do your musical air horns have the option to blow all horns at once so that you can have a "normal" but bl@@dy loud horn or the music, or are they just musical.

Mine have the option and therefore have another bit of wiring to switch between the two.

what are yours like?

Bri.
 
No Brian they are just musical, Here is the set up of the horns,relay and compressor. Was a lot of messing around to get them all in and to not look to bad, does anyone see any potential problems ? I have tried to keep things away from heat sources, impossible in a V8 but we shall see.I want to alter anything now if I have to before I have a go at the wiring. cheers Mick.
DSCF2045.jpg

DSCF2046.jpg

DSCF2047.jpg
 
Nice to see you've angled the horns down towards the fuel pump, so in the event of fuel vapourisation just give them a blast to cool the pump down a bit. :LOL:
 
Ok wiring is done and they work, but is it correct, this is what I have done, took a feed from the washer bottle to the switch then followed Richards diagram. Took a 12v feed from the feed to the coil as their was already a connector their empty which I presume was used before. Then again followed Richards diagram. Everything works, took the car on a bit of a run, everything up to temp and all was ok. I HOPE!!!!!
 
happy days said:
Ok wiring is done and they work, but is it correct, this is what I have done, took a feed from the washer bottle to the switch then followed Richards diagram. Took a 12v feed from the feed to the coil as their was already a connector their empty which I presume was used before. Then again followed Richards diagram. Everything works, took the car on a bit of a run, everything up to temp and all was ok. I HOPE!!!!!
Click to expand...

Washer bottle feed is ok for the low power circuit as it only switches the relay and uses very little power. If you are using this feed though, there is no need to go all the way to the switch and back to the relay (I am assuming the relay is close to the compressor), just connect the feed to 86, then the earth wire can go from 85 to the switch and then to earth.

Personally though, I wouldn't be using the coil feed for the compressor power. Where have you connected it to?

The coil wire has a resistor wire in it, is not fused (if anything happens to the compressor from being sat too close to the manifolds for example) your wiring loom can melt, any disruption can cause a missfire, etc. Not trying to be alarmist and I may be paranoid about wiring (Guess how Sparky got his name), but I really wouldn't do that.

Just my opinion :D

Richard
 
Hi Richard, the feed for the coil at some point had been cut because they are different coloured wires, anyway they were joined together by both going into the female side of a bullet connector with nothing coming back out of rhe bullet connector, so i went into that. I just assumed it would be covered by a fuse. I dont want to have Sparky 2, so would it be safer to disconnect that and run it to the fuse box ? Oh I have electronic ignition so the ballast resistor wire was bypassed I think, no im pretty sure. cheers Mick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top