4-note "Tugboat" horn install

This was my afternoon project. Been meaning to do this a while but had not had much free time lately. I'd nabbed a pair of horns from the passenger side of a 95 Roady sedan at the salvage yard and was itching to install them.



I had a little extra work to do before I could install the horns. Sometime in my car's past a battery blew in it, and it got acid on the paint there beside the battery and also all in the battery tray,and even under it. It ate the paint and there was rust there, so I needed to clean that up.

Here's what I found after pulling the battery and tray out. YUCKO!


The horns will mount in that hole there. To get to one of the mount holes you have to move the coolant tank up and over. You also have to remove the ground wire for the battery from the fender. After doing that I used Ajax and a scrub brush to clean all the dirt and rust stains off, and then used 400-grit wet sandpaper on the inner fender and lower fenderwell, and then taped off the black part to paint the white, and vice-versa.


Time to channel my inner Crovo



Looks better!


Horns installed and coolant tank re-mounted



Ground wire re-attached


Next I ran the single wire through the stock wiring harness that runs along the upper part of the radiator support in front and above of the condensor to the driver's side horns. I removed the air filter box to get at the horn wiring easier. Man the computer under there is a dirty mess!

Anyway this is simple, just splice the wire from the new horns added on the passenger side to the green wire coming off the horns on the drivers side.




Then just put the battery back in. Looks stock!


Now the fun part. Hit the horn and HONK HONK!! Now THATS the way a big car should sound! Hahahahaha!



-Mike

Dude, really? You think that's what rust looks like??? Ha! I laugh at your silly little rust stains!

Looks good though. Nice work!

Oh, and if you are trying to take close up shots, like the blurry ones of the wiring, use the "macro" feature on your camera. It tells the camera to focus on stuff closest to the lense.

Hmm. I didn't know that this is where the second set of horns go. Is there space for the horns and for
Gary's headlight relay kit?

I do want a second set of horns.

Yeah, that's where the Fleetwoods and Roadie Sedans (I think) had them.

Nick Danger wrote:

Hmm. I didn't know that this is where the second set of horns go. Is there space for the horns and for
Gary's headlight relay kit?

I do want a second set of horns.

That is my question as well. Both my cars have his headlight kit.

should've pulled that one bolt and dipped it in black too,..

Nick

phantom 309 wrote:

should've pulled that one bolt and dipped it in black too,..

Nick

The bolt heads all got painted before everything went back in Nick. I'm way too anal to not do that. Used a paint brush and some Rust-Oleum engine paint on them.

But thanks for noticing.

And to answer the other question, yes this is the same location and mounting holes used on the Roady sedan. If you pull a set of horns at the salvage yard, you'll know how they go back in. Hardest part of the entire job is running the wire through the loom.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Dude, really? You think that's what rust looks like??? Ha! I laugh at your silly little rust stains!

Looks good though. Nice work!

Oh, and if you are trying to take close up shots, like the blurry ones of the wiring, use the "macro" feature on your camera. It tells the camera to focus on stuff closest to the lense.

Thanks Bill. ANY rust bothers me! I used my hand grinder on the battery tray, it was the worst, and then coated it with some thick high-heat paint. The rest cleaned up pretty well so I just shot a few light coats.

As for the camera, the zoom feature no longer works on my old Olympus. That camera is pretty much shot, so it's what I use when working on the car or going yarding. Sorry the pics were so blurry. Those were on the driver's side and visible once I pulled out the airbox.

On my first LT1 wagon I had to use a mud flap off a big truck for a battery tray/inner fender, and a bungee cord to hold the battery in place, it was way beyond rust. I would love it if all I had to worry about is rust stains.

Mike

I looked at my car and the install pictures here. It seems like the horns should fit with the headlight harness from Innovative Wiring. Off to the junk yard I go......

Just got back from the junk yard where I pulled 3 passenger side horn sets, from a 92 RMS, 93 Fleetwood and a 94 RMS.

The is a difference in wiring. The TBI car has a thicker gauge wire that runs from passenger to driver side where it connects to a weatherpack connector. The LT1 car runs from passenger side to drivers side where it is spliced together and then runs to a connector by the PCM. One could cut at the splice or take the whole harness. I took the whole harness for both sets of horns. I can't comment on the Fleetwood as it whole engine bay harness was gone.

I can update later to confirm or deny fitment when I mount the horns. Wiring will not be fun, having done the headlight harnesses already that much I know.

EDIT- With Gary's (Innovative Wiring) four relay headlight harness, you can only fit the rearmost horn inside the passenger fender. I can't speak on the two relay harness but I am guessing the two horns won't fit with that as well.

[/url]

I love this mod. Pissed my wife off the other night going to dinner...kept blowing the horns. Ha!

-Mike

Look Mike, rust!

Stingroo wrote:

Look Mike, rust!

Easy fix!

Just put the two extra horns on the core support behind the driver's headlight. There is a perfect flat spot right there.

jayoldschool wrote:

Just put the two extra horns on the core support behind the driver's headlight. There is a perfect flat spot right there.

I will have to check that out. If not, it sounds pretty good with three horns. Notes are an A and F on the driver's side and a B and C on the passenger side.

I don't remember what that bracket that holds the headlight relays looks like. Could you bend it so the relays are pointed more downward, and install the horns in the stock location?

Nick Danger wrote:

I don't remember what that bracket that holds the headlight relays looks like. Could you bend it so the relays are pointed more downward, and install the horns in the stock location?

No

I'm sending Dick in Oregon some of these for his '92 OCC, and thought I might point out a couple of things specific to TBI cars.

On my OCC, the ground for the battery was in the hole for the metal stud one of the horns needs, but there is a hole right above this, and I just moved the ground there, and the horn mounted right up. In my old pics above this is the same way things mounted in my Roady.

Also, the holes for the other horn are much easier to get at if you unbolt the coolant overflow bottle (2-bolts) and just set it aside. Makes the job easy. Had to do this on the LT1 cars as well, but its easier with the TBI cars.

Oh and the horns are marked for their notes. On the driver's side, the horns are and "A" and and "F". The passenger side ones from either a Roady sedan or a Caddy Fleetwood are a "C" and a "D" tone.

It's funny, I tested the new horns with a battery on my workbench, and the "C" is a loud high pitch while the "D" is a warbly squak. Funny. Did the same thing when I put these on my '96 LT1 Roady. Good idea to test them, you never know with salvage yard parts.

Still one of my favorite cheap and easy mods. The 4-note horns make it sound like a locomotive.

-Mike

I still need to get some bolts for the passenger side. Anyone know the size? I'd like to avoid unbolting my current horns to drive to the hardware store to find a matching size.

5/16"x3/4" sheet metal screw, a lag screw or the same size would work too.

Might be 1/4" diameter screw after thinking about it. Get both, and start your hardware collection with the left overs.

Mike

Here's some horns and info on my TBI wagon install, '92 Olds Custom Cruiser.

Dick, the horns on the left are yours. Only one of the ones on the right work. Yours have a little corrosion on them, but I jumped them on the battery and they work fine.



Will not show once installed.


The horns have the tone letters on them, molded in the plastic. A and F are on the driver's side, and C and D are the ones you grab from a passenger side of a Roady sedan or Fleetwood.




I did have to re-locate the battery ground wire to the hole a little higher on the inner fender. The lock/location stud on the horn goes where the ground bolt was.


It's worth removing the two bolts holding in the coolant bottle and moving it out of the way to get at the mounting spot for the other horn. Once the bottle is moved the install is easy.


I used the stock sedan wiring that I nabbed at the salvage yard and spliced a wire to it, and ran it along the factory harness under the upper part of the radiator support. Once on the driver's side I just used a quick-splice to connect it to the factory Olds horn power wire. See green wire.



That's it. Now go press the horn button and wake up the neighbors. The Queen Mary is preparing to dock!

-Mike

I need to do this.

This is what I will do Friday in Daytona.

Or sooner, if there are any 4-note horn cars in my local yard.

Mike,
Thanks.
I will let you know when they get here, and how the install goes. Looks easy.
Dick

where is the video with you honking the new horn? lets hear it

buickestate wrote:

where is the video with you honking the new horn? lets hear it

Yeah, a picture may be worth a thousand words but it ain't worth four horns.

Acquired the extra horns at local yard and did this mod today. Very easy and I love the new sound. Wish it was louder but I like it.

Going to thread jack this and say I found a set in Daytona, installed them yesterday. I love this mod

rh96ss wrote:

I looked at my car and the install pictures here. It seems like the horns should fit with the headlight harness from Innovative Wiring. Off to the junk yard I go......

Just got back from the junk yard where I pulled 3 passenger side horn sets, from a 92 RMS, 93 Fleetwood and a 94 RMS.

The is a difference in wiring. The TBI car has a thicker gauge wire that runs from passenger to driver side where it connects to a weatherpack connector. The LT1 car runs from passenger side to drivers side where it is spliced together and then runs to a connector by the PCM. One could cut at the splice or take the whole harness. I took the whole harness for both sets of horns. I can't comment on the Fleetwood as it whole engine bay harness was gone.

I can update later to confirm or deny fitment when I mount the horns. Wiring will not be fun, having done the headlight harnesses already that much I know.

EDIT- With Gary's (Innovative Wiring) four relay headlight harness, you can only fit the rearmost horn inside the passenger fender. I can't speak on the two relay harness but I am guessing the two horns won't fit with that as well.

[/url]

When I did this mod, I was able to fit the two relay harness between the horns. I drilled a hole and mounted them on the wheelwell.

This reminds me that my horns must have been lost somewhere in our postal system because
I know Mike 81x11 remembered to mail them about a month ago!RIGHT Mike?