Here's my first DIY, hope you like it. This is a way tomake your stock OE horns sound louder andnastier too! All this was done ona 2001 Ram 1500, so your mileage may vary.

Tools needed:

13mm short socket and wrench or 13mm hand wrench
10mm deep socket and shorty extension
pair of pliers
vise grips
flat head long screw driver
plumber's putty

Total time: less than an hour

Procedure:

1. Pop the hood and punch out the rubber cowl between the radiator and truck wall on the passenger side. It isn't necessary to remove the plastic grommets holding it in. This thing is blocking some sound, and stopping cooler air from getting to your intake to boot!

2. As you look down the passenger side, you'll see two hornsbolted to the frame behind the head lights.One is pitched high, the other low. We want to find the high one.

3. Unplug one horn at a timeby pushing the pin on the connector in, pull the plug out, and then beep the horn to find out whichone is the high horn. Mine was the one toward the front of the vehicle.

4. As you can see in the first picture, the horns are backward and facing into the engine. This won't do, as we've got this great new hole we made at the front of the compartment.


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5. Remove each horn by removeing the 13mm nut and washer on the back of each horn with a socket or hand wrench. You may need to reach through the cowl hole at the front to hold the horn unit steady to start the nut off. Don't loose track of the high horn! We have to modify this one.

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6. Take the high horn and place some plumber's putty into the horn bell, but don't close off the hole completely. See 2nd and 3rd pics. A harder substance might work better, but I couldn't think of anything that would stay workable and allow you to tune the horn. If anybody has an idea, speak up. It'll need to stay workable for at least 10 min, then get really hard. If you don't want to change the horn's pitch, skip this step.

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7. Now we need to modify the horn brackets in the truck as they are facing the wrong way. Unbolt the brackets using the 10mm socket with a shorty extension. Note that the bracketshave a smallnotch that keeps them in place. We are going to modify that notch. the electrical harness on the back bracket pops out with a pull, just be sure to pull the plastic harness, not the wires.

8. Using vise grips and a pair of pliers, bend those notches up so that the bracket can slide around afterthey are bolted back in. In picture 4, I filed it off, but realizedlater that was not needed. (The second bracket has yet to be altered in the pic).

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9. Rebolt the brackets to the frame and the horns to the brackets as seen in picture 5. Face both horns toward the cowl hole and bolt the low horn to the outside of the bracket instead of the inside where it originally was. The sound should now have a straight shot through the cowl hole and grill. I chose to angle the horns slightly upwardto aim at the ears of bicyclists and walkers that jump out in front of me on occasion.

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10. From the front of the truck, through the cowl hole, you can manipulate the putty in the high horn bell with a flat headed screw driver to get just the right sound you want. (See pic.) Pushing the the putty further back into the bell will make the pitch go lower and should grind on the ears more, just don't close off the bell completely or you'll muffle the horn.

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Close the hood, polish off your drink of choice and you're done. Enjoy your new horns!

 

Thanks for sharing your DIY. I've been wanting a louder nastier horn since I got my truck but I have other things on my list to get that must come first. I'm definatly going to give this a try later this week after I get paid and I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

 

Thanks,

Really shouldn'tcost you more than $5 for the plumber's putty, if you don't have any of that lying around. I happened to have everything I needed when I started.

To tell the truth, the DIY took longer than the actual work.