Horn headaches, all day long!

[ROUSER]

i just got my new to me HZJ78 Troopy last week, for one reason or another it did not have the horns installed? The original 4 wires for the two horn are still present, so I purchased two aftermarket horns and installed them, even ran a separate ground to ensure proper grounding would be archived.

With both horns wired I get a couple of honks then nothing but a click, disconnect the low tone and the high tone works fine, then disconnect the high tone and reconnect the low tone and the low tone works fine. So by only running one or the other at a time I get sound, but I want them both to sound together!

Removed the steering wheel and cleaned the spring loaded brass contact and mating surface, even cleaned the 4 contacts on the horn button. Still nothing.

Found the relay panel under the steering column on the left, not sure wich of the 4 relays was for the horn I disconnected them one at a time and tested for a honk, after disconnecting each of them seperatly to see which one was for the horn I found I would still get the click no matter which one was disconnected.

I could still get a honk from each one independently, but not together.

Stumped, please help with any advise.

 

[ozcrusier]

Welcome to the forum
Sounds like a major voltage drop I would check the voltage with a multi meter when your helper sounding the horn while you check with one horn connected and test the other wiring. My guess is the wiring is breaking down from age and you will need to add a couple relays. I would plan on the headlights next but with four relays for low and high beam.
Good Luck

 

[ROUSER]

Thanks for the advice ozcruiser, much appreciated. When the truck is running the horns work just fine, it's when the truck is off they aren't working as a pair. I found one wire where the copper has started turning black, I think that's the culprit. Will run a new wire as soon as the rain stops and report my findings.

 

[Dprio34]

Rouser, If you have time, do you have any pics how you wired up your horn/solved the problem?
I don't even have a horn, so I'm starting from scratch. PO has done some crazy stuff under there and starting from zero.
Best I can tell is the horn wires are a pair of green wires with red stripes at the grill, coming from the driver's side on a LHD vehicle.
Can anyone confirm?

 

[ROUSER]

Rouser, If you have time, do you have any pics how you wired up your horn/solved the problem?
I don't even have a horn, so I'm starting from scratch. PO has done some crazy stuff under there and starting from zero.
Best I can tell is the horn wires are a pair of green wires with red stripes at the grill, coming from the driver's side on a LHD vehicle.
Can anyone confirm?

Sorry no pics at this time as my Troopy is in California and I'm in Costa Rica at the moment.

What I ended up doing was adding a relay in conjunction with 12ga wire.
Power to the relay from my xtra fuse box(Blue Sea), both signal wires to the relay, and a separate ground from each horn to the body.

The horns have been working flawlessly ever since, and are crazy loud!

 

[Dprio34]

Ordered some new Hella Horns. Will posts some pics when I get her wired up!
Have fun in CR! Pura Vida!

 

[Dprio34]

New Hella "Panther Sharp Tone" Horns arrived and overall, I'm very pleased with the sound. I went with the Blue/Yellow set versus the Red since the Blue/Yellow advertises a deeper tone. Cleaned off the Horn Wires behind the grille.

Green w/Red is the Hot and Green w/White is the ground. Note of caution: If you don't wire this up with a relay "Probably" only one of the horns will sound with the engine not running. The second horn needed to be unplugged for the first one to sound. I found myself scratching my head at first, but these suckers draw some juice and it ain't all getting to the horns through those tiny stock wires without the engine running/alternator generating current.

Also, you have to clock the spade connections on the Hella Horns to 2:00 for the factory wires to reach. Good news there is exactly enough wire for it to neatly fit up under the grille and make the connection.