Page 1 of 1
Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:06 pm
by caprikid61
Has anyone ever fitted air horns to there capries? I am stuggling to wire up the realy . Does the realy need 2 live feeds ? I have taken a wire from the battery to a switch on the dashboard then taken the wire from the switch to the realy . The problem I am having is there are four pins on the realy not sure how to wire it up can anyone help ??
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( relay)
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:56 pm
by caprikid61
caprikid61 wrote:Has anyone ever fitted air horns to there capries? I am stuggling to wire up the relay . Does the relay need 2 live feeds ? I have taken a wire from the battery to a switch on the dashboard then taken the wire from the switch to the relay. The problem I am having is there are four pins on the realy not sure how to wire it up can anyone help ??
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:05 pm
by Andrew 2.8i
Yes, you will need a live to the switch and also another live to the relay.
See here:
Make sure that the lives from the battery are fused at an appropriate rating.
Andrew.
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:27 pm
by caprikid61
Andrew 2.8i wrote:Yes, you will need a live to the switch and also another live to the relay.
See here:
Make sure that the lives from the battery are fused at an appropriate rating.
Andrew.
Thanks for that Andrew I am starting to understand how it workes now I was going to use a 20amp fuse between the battery and the relay and the same between the switched live and the relay . Not easy putting those air horns on a lot more work than I first thought
.
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:28 pm
by D366Y
The 3litre I just got has air horns on it but only requires one positive feed to work - I wired it straight to the original horn wiring positive but added an in-line fuse as well - not sure if that would be an (easier) option for you?
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 9:05 pm
by caprikid61
D366Y wrote:The 3litre I just got has air horns on it but only requires one positive feed to work - I wired it straight to the original horn wiring positive but added an in-line fuse as well - not sure if that would be an (easier) option for you?
Thanks but I have already fixed a new switch to the dash so will just have to take a live from the battery to the relay . Cheers
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:55 pm
by 340truck
Remember the fuse rating is dependant on the rating of the wire you are using. 15amp fuse in 20amp wire...nice and safe. 20amp fuse in 15amp wire and if something goes wrong, I can smell smoke and your FIRE and theft policy is gonna be needed.
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 7:19 pm
by Jasonmarie
There a small child in all of us and I would love a set of horns on mine . Don’t think they would love it in the village
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 11:33 pm
by caprikid61
340truck wrote:Remember the fuse rating is dependant on the rating of the wire you are using. 15amp fuse in 20amp wire...nice and safe. 20amp fuse in 15amp wire and if something goes wrong, I can smell smoke and your FIRE and theft policy is gonna be needed.
The guy in Halfords said the thickest wire they did was 27 amp so i got that so a 20 amp fuse should be ok? Cheers Alex
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:52 am
by 340truck
Yep that'll be safe. Fuse blows before wire goes.
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:21 am
by stevemarl
D366Y wrote:The 3litre I just got has air horns on it but only requires one positive feed to work - I wired it straight to the original horn wiring positive but added an in-line fuse as well - not sure if that would be an (easier) option for you?
Whilst this will work, it means the stalk switch is carrying way more current than it was designed for and I`d imagine will have an early death. Ideally you should use the original horn wire to cause a relay to switch and the heavy duty contacts therein carry the heavy current. As in Andrew`s diagram.
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 1:24 pm
by Andrew 2.8i
Of course, in the case of musical horns, they couldn't be wired to the horn push switch anyway, as they aren't road legal and would fail the MOT.
Caprikid61 is absolutely correct to have a separate switch to operate the airhorns and to wire them using a relay.
Andrew.
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:42 pm
by D366Y
Andrew 2.8i wrote:Of course, in the case of musical horns, they couldn't be wired to the horn push switch anyway, as they aren't road legal and would fail the MOT.
Caprikid61 is absolutely correct to have a separate switch to operate the airhorns and to wire them using a relay.
Andrew.
That's true, the ones on mine are just a single air horn rather than a musical number
Re: Dixie air horn wiring ( realy)
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:19 pm
by caprikid61
Just an update on the Dixie horns I managed to wire them up using the diagram that Andrew posted would have been lost without that so thanks for that Andrew.
The horns sound fab and are pretty loud not bad for £22.00 from Ebay . The reason for the switch on the dash was I wanted to keep my own car horn working for mot .
Does any one remember way back in the CB radio days when we used to have a TA switch on the CB that was wired to a loudspeaker under the bonnet? We used to have great fun with those by shouting into the mic and playing police siren sounds . Would never get away with that sort of thing these days I even used to have extra brake lights under the back bumper it looked cool with the four brake lights lol . Aye those were the days :cool: thanks again for your help guys .