HELLA horn install

The horn button is on the ground side of the original VW horn wiring. So you want diagram 2a.

Disconnect both wires from the horn (don't let them touch anything), turn on the key, and check the voltage on each wire. One will be hot. That's the power from the fuse box. The other wire (typically brown) will have no reading and no continuity to ground. This is the wire to the horn button.

Thanks Justin. One quick question though.  On the horn itself there is no markings for + or - does it matter which one I use as the positive and negative?

The horn doesn't care which way you hook it up.

Thanks again.  Here's hoping I have time this weekend to get it all hooked up.

Use a relay, especially for two horns. Use the horn button to switch the relay trigger wire. This way you won't burn out the horn button contacts. Vintage doesn't use a relay because it is quicker and cheaper to do it that way and they can get away with it because of the ten cent Chinese horn they use. Its not the right way to do it.  Vintage uses the 67 VW system that switches the hot from the fuse box I think. If you use a relay, you can switch the hot from the fuse box feeding the horn button circuit to the relay coil and use the horn button to trigger the ground side of the horn relay. This is the way most cars are.  Some of the resident geniuses here can help a lot more by telling you what fuse to check for relay power and how to ground the column. Its been about a year since I've done mine and I can't remember exactly how I did it. I'm using two of the Hella horns that look like the old Bosch horns that were on 356s. They look original and work really well.

Thanks.  The relay came with the horn kit and as Justin suggested I'll use the 2a diagram referenced in the HELLA instructions and based on what I saw it is exactly what I need.  Ground wire from horn to ground on relay and to body, hot from fuse to hot on relay, battery to relay, hot wire out to the horns, and ground the horns. 

I just put a pair of these on Calamity Joan's ML500. The factory pair was wimpy and the low tone horn was toast. MAN! What a difference! 118db of MOVE IT! I too wondered if there was a + or - but it doesn't matter.

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~WB

Thanks again for the help.  I just finished the install (still need some photos) and it went very smooth.  I unplugged the original wires and determined which was hot and which was negative.  I mounted a six-pack fuse block and the relay in the recess/space next to the battery for all my connections.  I used the fuse block to connect some of the other accessories that were attached to the battery like my 12v power source. I fed the wires through the hole in the battery recess where one of the battery cables passes through and connected the negative to #85 on the relay. I attached the hot lead from the car's original fuse block to #86.  I used 12 gauge wire to make the rest of the connections.  I ran a new hot wire from the "new" fuse block to #30 on the relay and from #87 to the horns.  I used 12 gauge wire to ground the horns to the frame. I used shrink tubing and the connectors with the shrink tubing built in for all the connections.

I fabricated some brackets out of angle braces and a heavy metal strap from Home Depot.  I drilled a larger hole in the angle brace and used one of the bolts from the bumper bracket to secure it to the frame.  I bolted the heavy metal strap to the angle bracket with stainless steel nuts, bolts, and washers and attached the horn to that with more SS nuts, bolts, and washers.  After measuring everything up and cutting to fit I took it all apart and painted everything black (except the HELLA horns).  The shape of the bracket allowed me to center the horns both vertically and horizontally behind the chrome horn grills.  I reassembled everything, zip tied all my wires tight, and tried them out.  Let me tell you they are loud and very cool sounding with the high/low tones. Very Eurpoean sounding.

No one will miss my little Speedster now.

You can see the red HELLAS behind the horn grill and they look real good. It was too dark for photos last night so I'll post some when I can get good pictures of everything.

1. Here's the photos:

In the first photo you can see the new fuse block and to the right is the horn relay.  In the second photo you can see the "Z" shaped bracket I made to mount the horns. And in the last photo youncan see how they look behind the chrome horn grill. 

Very nice and clean...thanks for the information it will help me when I replace my 'beep beep' horns with Hellas.

One question in the 2nd photo it looks like one of the wires for the indicator light(red with boot) has pulled off the light? It looks like there is only a black wire still connected?

I'll have to get back under there to check it. LOL  Didn't even notice it.  But the last time I did a walk around they were all working.  I may have knocked it off.

If I had a table mounted grinder I would have rounded all of the corners off the brackets.  Maybe I'll get one and do that later.

Looks good, Robert. It looks like you've created a backwards 'z' bracket that could articulate on each of the bolt/screw joints.  Vibrations over time may cause that horn to sag down a bit. A quick fix could be to attach a strip of metal bracket material from the horn mounting nut back down to that open hole on the L bracket from the bumper. 

What you have whipped up looks good and the extra strap might not be necessary, but it will keep that bracket from 'scissoring' closed over time.

Looking good,

Ted

Something to consider...

The 'red' bezel on the horn kind of draws your eye right to the horn grills. I think the original horns were an eggplant/brownish color.  Maybe a guy could easily paint that bezel a different color so as not to 'stand out' so much?

I just tried a quick and dirty phs job to try and hide some of the red so you could visualize the differences.

Again - YMMV,

Ted

Hey Robert! - FWIW, I kept the standard 'beep-beep' horn and horn button for those 'hi, how are ya' horn blips to passers-by or pedestrians giving you the thumbs up! 

However, I also added on the passenger side of the car this (obnoxiously-loud-shrill-pitched-watch-where-you're-going) air horn activated with an auxiliary button within easy reach.

@ Ted

I used a lock washer and a nylock nut to secure it but I did think that it might be possible for it to "droop" a little over time so I'll keep an eye on it.  Thanks for the tip on how to correct it.  And yes, the "Z" bracket allows me to center it both vertically and horizontally in the chrome horn grill.  Right now I'm digging the red color because it matches the interior.  Won't be too hard to paint if i change my mind though. The other mess you circled (LOL) is the directional light that is under my headlight bucket.  My directional light lenses are clear glass.  I'm guessing they might even be original 356 lenses.

@ James

I did consider keeping the Roadrunner horn for the same reason.  I can put it back in and wire it to a push button or something if I decide to go back.

Thanks for the suggestions and comments.

Cool! run what you brung man! Looks great. If the red matches, then you're in business.  I'm jealous of the how smooth the fiberglass is on the insides of your bodies! Mine looks like the surface of the moon.   

I need to heed Jim's words and go back to the 'beep beep' horn on my car.  I installed a 60's/70's Cadillac horn set up in my speedster. I 'tooted' it at a co worker and her family the other day. I scared the little girls half out of their skin.  Her husband (Rob) was none too impressed.

The caddy horn set up is made up of 4 individual horns.Tuned to A D E and F. When combined they make a pretty astounding racket.    

Keep up the good work,

Ted

I'm running a set of Hella "Alpina" air horns on Pearl (same as Jim, above, but with three red horns) which I "tested" yesterday when I was installing my new front seat and accidentally hit the horn button.

It's amazing how fast that seat comes back out when you get a 126 decibel "BEEP" in a closed garage!