Hello, I'm installing a generic horn into a '30 Ford Sedan in order to p*** inspection. What I've purchased is a horn, ****on, in-line fuse, fuses, relay switch & some wire. My question is whether the relay switch is really needed. The parts store guy said the inline fuse should cover it, but I went ahead & got a relay switch too. The relay switch is looking like its gonna over complicate the installation to me, but I'm just not sure. Anyone have any input for me? Thanks Carl Hagan
I would use the relay. You can run thinner guage wire to the horn ****on, and you won't have the risk of arcing and sparking under your horn ****on. Relays are real simple. Just think of it as an electronic switch. When it is energized, it turns on, feeding current to your horn.
if all you are going to do is leave it installed long enough to get it inspected a relay would not be needed. If you are going to make this a permanent install I would use a relay and trigger the relay through the ground circuit.
I dont know if it will work in KS or not. I got a 23 T inspected in Texas years ago with an old fashioned squeeze bulb horn.
Carl, bear with me as I'm at work and no diagrams......... Yes, I'd certainly use the relay. Wire the coil side of the relay, one to constant 12 hot. Other to your horn ****on, which is self grounding. Wire another 12 volt hot to the input of the relay, other output goes to horn, which is self grounding. if using a Bosch style relay, (generic cube), terminal 85 gets a hot lead. terminal 86 goes to switch. terminal 30 gets a hot lead. terminal 87 goes to horn.
All I ever did was gound the horn with the ****on. Unless your talking Maserati air horn Then I gound the relay with the ****on It works unless you short out the ground wire. My 39 GMC had the problem when I first got it and would honk without warning. Made me situp in and fill the cab to fend off the stinkeye from all'round Did you ever scrunch down in the cab hoping some jerk would get outta his car to talk to you? Good fun try it! And see how quick they get back in their POS when you sit up!
Connect the ground wire from the horn to frame or body. Then run the pos wire from horn to load side of relay then connect power from a fused power sorce to the power terminal of the relay you may have to run a jump wire also. Then connect the neg wire from relay to horn switch. When the horn switch grounds out it will complete the circut to the relay and the relay will complete the circut to the horn without over loading switch. Which could cause the switch to burn out.
Thanks for all the replies guys. Glad a few more repllies were on here by this morning. I'm sure I'm using the generic bosch type relay switch. It's a different name than bosch, but all the terminal numbers are the same as listed above. Got horn mounted & wiring routed & everything hooked up. The directions on the horn & the relay ****. A little diffent from what was posted here. Never the less, got it all hooked up and it did NOT honk. I'll try a few more of the suggestions listed here tonight to see if it'll work. Questions: the horn listed 1 wire or 2 wire hookup. Not sure which to really use & went with the 1 wire approach. Also, the relay listed a Positive vs. Negative type of wiring. Which, the negative one didn't make much sense to me because it looked like the diagram showed tying a ground in with a positive, so I went with the other route. No honk. Anything else you guys want to input would be appreciated. I'd like to use the relay, but it's starting to get frustrating. Any ideas for trouble shooting? Test light & just find where the power stops?? Thanks guys & yes....I feel so LAME that I didn't get my horn to work. Wiring......ARGGGG... Carl Hagan
Like some others have already mentioned, you should use a relay. For ease of wiring and safety. It might work without the relay, but in the long run, it'll be a more reliable system with it. Think of it this way, the relay uses a low current signal to control a high current flow. So you're not using big thick wire up and down the steering column and burning the contacts of the horn ****on. The control signal should flow through pins 85 and 86 on the relay and be grounded by your horn ****on. Hook your high current in to pin 30 and your horn positive to pin 87. Ground your horn and you should be good to go. 87A is the at rest connection and can be left unhooked. I'll post a quick wiring diagram in a little bit, gotta go to school now...
Old thread - same problem - you guys are talking Greek here. I have a wire from the horn ****on that goes down the column and ends there I have a hot wire I have a wire from the horn If I touch the hot wire to the horn wire it honks Anything else produces sparks I feel like an idiot here. But I really would like the horn to honk from the steering wheel ****on. But it appears I have to have two wires from the horn ****on to make this thing work. If this is correct I can take the thing apart again but don't see how I can get two wires up to the horn ****on area. Poopy drat stinky darn -
Norton 1...What you have to get in your mind about the HORN ****ON is that it is only a spring-loaded SWITCH, that when pressed, COMPLETES a momentary (as long as you hold the ****on) path to GROUND....IF your steering column is properly grounded with a good, solid path back to ch***is / battery ground. That's why you SHOULD NOT need a second wire back down the column. The ****on IS the grounding device. DD
I do understand the switch concept. With that said - the hot ties to the wire from the the horn ****on and the wire from the horns goes to ground. Is that correct?
Depending on WHERE the horn is wired into this relatively simple circuit, you either switch the HOT on (closed) or off (open)...OR...you switch the GROUND on (closed) or off (open). It's a DC circuit. You just complete the circuit to blow the horn. It can be intimidating. Do yourself a favor and DRAW the circuit out, including a battery, a horn and a switch. All of a sudden, it'll get clear as mud. DD
Norton - easy peazy Think like this : horn ****on with tiny ground wire works an electric switch or relay with big hot wire for your horn. You actual have two devices, a horn and a relay. Each need 1 hot and 1 ground to work. The steering wheel ****on gives a ground to the relay when you push it. The relay gives power to the horn when you close the relay via steering wheel ****on.
Here you go, 5 minutes in paint The relay is a standard Bosch (less than 5 bucks at most electronics stores). If you buy the 5-pin style, make sure you use pin 87 and not 87A. This will make your horn able to honk any time. If you want it to only work when the key is "ON", run an ignition sourced wire to pin 86.
A schemi-sketch - awesome - I had sort of figured this as the easiest way to do it - I happened to have one of those relays in my electrical junk so it finally got into the brain housing group - Thank you ALL!!
It does feel ****y to be near 70 and still having problems with simple stuff like this - geezzz Louise -
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