Air horn installation...

[channelmaniac]

OK... I've had enough of SUVs, minivans, and soccer moms... I picked up a set of air horns from Pep Boys and started the install tonight.

I'll take pics and do a write up on it for everyone as I'm making some custom brackets to hold the compressor and horns. I'm also installing it so that the air horns and the standard horn both go off at the same time. This way if the compressor or the horns fail I'll still have the stock horn.

RJ

[Treibenschnell]

You may want to upsize your relay as well if you're going to run both...

[channelmaniac]

The unit came with a relay... I'm simply going to tap into the horn +12v line and use that to turn on the relay for the air horns.

This way the air horns will have their own power source and both horns will work at the same time...

It'll sound like this when finished.

[Treibenschnell]

I'm very familiar with airhorns... :)

[Screamin'Screw]

Careful! My air horns draw enough power to cause a misfire in my engine.

[channelmaniac]

Careful! My air horns draw enough power to cause a misfire in my engine.

Well, I'm tapping into the mains for power... so hopefully that won't happen.

Horns and compressor are in! Hopefully I can get the electrical done this weekend.

I took pics of the finished install of the horns & compressor... Didn't take pics of the brackets as they were being fabricated & installed.

All of this is fabricating is requiring no special tools other than a vise (if you consider that special) and some small hand & power tools (drill & jigsaw.) The vise is just for bending the metal bar into the brackets and the jigsaw is just for cutting the metal bar, but you can always use a hacksaw instead.

RJ

[channelmaniac]

OK!

Today was electrical day... and DANG! It cost me almost as much as the airhorns for all the crimp connectors & wire. 12ga for the compressor power & ground and 16 gauge for the horn signal & relay ground.

The relay was mounted to the windshield washer reservoir mounting bolt as it was next to the fuse box. I unhooked the positive battery cable and hooked up an inline watertight fuse holder (cheap at Tanner's - this was leftover from all the amplifier wiring that I didn't install in the 92 B&T) and connected it to the relay. Next was a run of 12ga red wire from the relay to the compressor and then a short run of 12ga black wire from the compressor to the mounting bracket I made for a good ground.

I used a female spade lug tap to tap into the horn +12v wire and ran a wire back to the power for the relay. A quick short ground wire from the relay to where the windshield wiper motor ground was installed to complete it.

Run over to the driver's side door and.... nothing. What the heck?

It's nice to have a kid to help when troubleshooting... I disconnected the horn to see if there was too much of a voltage drop to keep the relay from being activated. Nope. Wasn't it. Next was verifying all my wiring to see if I had something bad there... Nope. It was the relay.

When cleaning out my trunk I found a set of fog lights that I got from 3Bean but didn't install on the 92 B&T before I sold it. THERE WAS A RELAY WITH IT! Whew. A quick swap of relays and WOW!

It's VERY loud. VERY.

I reconnected the horn and now both work at the same time. This way I have more sound and if the air horns ever fail for some reason then I will still have the stock horn to make sound. The best of both worlds.

I took many pics and did a full writeup. Hopefully TC will post it in the Reviews section... I already have it posted up on my Cardomain page

RJ

[channelmaniac]

Careful! My air horns draw enough power to cause a misfire in my engine.

I took the car for a drive - had to go to Pep Boys to get a new relay to put back with the fog lights.

In going under the bridge for the Bush I hit the horn to hear the echo under the bridge - No stumbling or misfiring and they DO get attention.

RJ