Help with wiring?

[Artemis Entreri]

Ok so I posted a topic a little bit ago about problems I had with my train horn. Long story short I had it wired to a second horn button threw what was at the installation time a keyd constant, one day it stopped working and only gave me keyd power in 4x4, ive given up trying to figure out why.

So this is the boat im in, ive got lots of wire and everything needed to do this, so is anyone familiar enough with electricity to help?

I have a tri air horn with a 3liter tank with a built on compressor.
The place where the air comes out has a sylenoid, to release the air obviously.

So there is a power and ground from the compressor and the solenoid.
I've also got a pull switch mounted under the dash, pull out push in type deal.

So here is what I want to do. I want to be able to use my steering wheel horn button for both horns, and I want to be able to switch between horns using the mounted switch under the dash.

I have since found a keyd power, tho I attempted to do the above on my lonesome and ended up getting confused and having it not work, lol.

SO anyone have any ideas? I have relays, 5 and 4 prong, and can always buy more. Depending how many are needed to do this.

Thanks alot if anyone can help.

 

[Tx Surveyor]

I can't help with the problem at hand but I was wondering where you got your train horn from and how pleased you are with it?




Surveyor

 

[Artemis Entreri]

The place was called siege engineering, went to see if I still had the link to their store,doesnt seem to work anymore.

Love it when it works, very loud, sounds alot like a trains horn and not just a loud blaring. If I can get this fixed, I will get a video of it up.

 

[Chevy305]

This might help a little:
http://brochures.slosh.com/wiring/91%20R-V%20Chassis%201.pdf

Also that push/pull switch, is that just a 2 pole on/off?

 

[Artemis Entreri]

Thanks for the link im going to look at it in a bit.
And yes, 2 pole on/off was hoping to make off = normal horn.
And on = train horn.

I capped the solenoid power/ground right into the horns so they blow at the same time right now, would really love to go back and forth between them tho, since they are illegal, and its nice to have a regular horn sometimes, lol.

 

[lectric80]

I think to do this correctly you are going to want the ground wire from the stock horn switch to run to a 3 position switch. In one position you are going to have ground from the steering wheel running to the stock horn relay, the other position is going to be going to the solenoid or relay that opens the air for the air horns.

By doing this, you need power going to both relays, stock horn and air horn. The power should be either keyed (not recommended) or constant on. The three position switch is an on-off-on switch, and you will wire it basically backwards. What I mean is the wire coming from the steering column will run to the center post of the switch, while the other two posts are going to have a wire that runs to one of the relays.

When you hit the horn button on the steering wheel, it will provide the required ground to one of the relays depending on position, thereby activating the relay. Now, you don't need to have two relays, as long as the solenoid ground is provided by this system. The solenoid could have power at all times, but would only open when the ground signal comes from the steering wheel button.

I would recommend having the compressor on a relay and you could use your current push/pull switch to control power to the compressor. That way when you don't need it running, or if the truck is parked for a bit, you can turn off the power and prevent draining your battery should an air leak develop.

I hope this all makes sense, but if you have any questions post up and I will try to answer them when I get in tomorrow night.

Edit: Excuse my poor paint skills, but this is the basic wiring to activate either set of horns. Red is positive, black is ground.

 

[Artemis Entreri]

Hey thanks alot, going to look into this when i get back under the hood, for right now, I had an epiphany to at least get the train horn working, since the normal horn worked, I just splice the solenoid power/ground into the horn power/ground so now when I push my horn button they both go off,tho you dont hear the normal horn, lol.

Prob going to try the three position switch thing in the next few days, thanks alot.