Fitting air horns to a D Special

mnm said:
Thanks to Richo, I have a new mauve sleeve on the faded wire, thanks to David we have power and a working trumpet, and thanks to Chris, HRE, et al, it all bloody works! :cheers: I've had to use one new trumpet from a kit I had as backup. I used the original long trumpet as the tone is higher and hopefully closer to the original sound.



"BLLLLLLAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRPPPPPP.... GET OUT OF THE WAY BITCH !!! " :drivin:

Matthew :)
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As Hillary Clinton so famously noted, it takes a village to get a set of air horns working. :kisses:
 
As an aside. The new Rolling stock for Adelaide has some complaints, the air horns are too loud according to the locals. Not sure of the dB's involved. The general consensus is that as most retire early to bed, the background hum drops and a train blows it's Type approved warning device the residents get one hell of a fright.
:cheers: Brendan.
ps Makes me pine for a set of Fiamm triples and go all Alfa Veloce.
 
GreenBlood said:
Hey Craig ol' mate... you wouldn't have a spare OE horn relay per chance, wants one :cry:
Not fitting mine until I get one :nownow:

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Cheers
Chris
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Hey Chris

are you still on the hunt?
CitroenDS Jochen Hoch - Cartier Arbeitsstromrelais original, 12V - Beleuchtung - Citroën DS

Matthew :)
 
GreenBlood said:
Thanks Matthew :wink2:

I have most of the parts I need including the relay. What I don't have is the correct bracket to suit a 5 speed gearbox, seems there are several different mounts but one that is specific to a 5 speed. :confused:

I'm in no hurry it will still be some time before I need to alarm a bendy bus :eek:

Cheers
Chris
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Am I reading the parts book correctly, Chris? Looking between 604 and 648, it appears the special "5-speed" bracket is up to 1970.
 
Hotrodelectric said:
Am I reading the parts book correctly, Chris? Looking between 604 and 648, it appears the special "5-speed" bracket is up to 1970.
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Hi HRE,

You're a step ahead of me, I haven't consulted the workshop manuals :clown:

I've been following this link on a German DS Forum using Bing Translator.

www.ds-freunde.de/kunena/technik/267-kompressor-horn-1968.html - Translator

The translation from German to English is quaint to say the least, but combined with the images you get the gist of the discussion. It appears the bracket for a five speed is in two parts but there is no explanation as to why :confused:

Cheers
Chris
 
The car in question is the D(very)Special, ne-c'est pas? I'll see if'n I can line up the parts numbers with the parts book a little later. It looks like a few of those will be eliminated outright simply because of model year.

I didn't know there were so many variants! :blackeye: Something new every day....
 
Variants, yes !
I can remember doing the rounds at the local Citroen dealership specifically looking at air horns. Every D in the place had a different set up.
 
Hotrodelectric said:
The car in question is the D(very)Special, ne-c'est pas? I'll see if'n I can line up the parts numbers with the parts book a little later. It looks like a few of those will be eliminated outright simply because of model year.

I didn't know there were so many variants! :blackeye: Something new every day....
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My car is a '74 D Special, but. . .
It is fitted with a 23 motor, 5 speed box and crossflow radiator, I can't see that the gearbox should make any difference to the mount for the horns. The suggestion on the German forum is that the green Sanor relay which apparently replaced the black round canister style relay on the later cars has it's own mount.

I think from what I see I have an earlier mount to suit cars up to '67, the mount holes don't line up to the existing threaded holes on the chassis.

Not at all urgent, I've a huge amount of work to do before I will need the correct parts.

Cheers
Chris
 
fritzelhund said:
Variants, yes !
I can remember doing the rounds at the local Citroen dealership specifically looking at air horns. Every D in the place had a different set up.
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Yah, from what I see, 3 different manufacturers- Fiamm, Axo, and someone else. Kind of unusual that not only were the brackets different, but at least two different lengths depending on year. They really look like a change merely for change's sake. Ach- these cars are French, good, bad or indifferent.

OK, Chris- 23 5 speed in a '74 chassis.
 
OK- I had a little more careful trip through the parts books. Information as follows:

Parts book 562, 1966-1969, July 1969:
DX571-74 to Sept '67
DX571-78a from Sept '67

Parts book 604, 1970-1971, September 1971:
DX571-78a listed for 4 speed models, 1970-1971
DX571-149a compressor bracket, listed for 5 speed models, 1970-1971
DX571-148a relay bracket, listed for 5 speed models, 1970-1971

Parts book 648, 1972-1974, June 1974:
5-449-518s compressor assembly bracket, listed for all models to from January 1974, presumed to end of production
DX571-148a relay bracket, 5speed not mentioned but assumed so
I take it that the brackets listed in 604 were continued up to January 1974.

I am a little surprised they would use a different bracket for the 5 speed cars. I could see where you would need that for the EFI cars, because the air cleaner can goes right down in there. If you still have it Chris, I would try the original bracket and check fitment.

I know the nose of the 5 speed is somewhat longer. Maybe the position of the front crossbrace changed as a result? That's one of the mounting points, so, maybe. :confused: Hard for me to tell, since we never got the 5 speed.
 
Hotrodelectric said:
They really look like a change merely for change's sake. Ach- these cars are French, good, bad or indifferent.
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Yep, complexity for the sake of it sometimes and the infamous parts bin build method. (Just fit whatever is in the parts bin)

There are details of the D series which took a huge amount of thought and which remained unchanged for 20 years. Indeed some of the original D bits carried on to subsequent models with no changes. Other parts were seemingly changed at a whim. It certainly adds complexity for a D archaeologist.

Even a thread re air horns has now reached 90 posts and 3,750 views and we have not even touched on the peculiarities of the column mounted switch gear :)
 
michaelr said:
Yep, complexity for the sake of it sometimes and the infamous parts bin build method. (Just fit whatever is in the parts bin)

There are details of the D series which took a huge amount of thought and which remained unchanged for 20 years. Indeed some of the original D bits carried on to subsequent models with no changes. Other parts were seemingly changed at a whim. It certainly adds complexity for a D archaeologist.

Even a thread re air horns has now reached 90 posts and 3,750 views and we have not even touched on the peculiarities of the column mounted switch gear :)
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Oh, Lord, please don't remind me. :eek::crazy::D
 
GreenBlood said:
My car is a '74 D Special, but. . .
It is fitted with a 23 motor, 5 speed box and crossflow radiator, I can't see that the gearbox should make any difference to the mount for the horns. The suggestion on the German forum is that the green Sanor relay which apparently replaced the black round canister style relay on the later cars has it's own mount.

I think from what I see I have an earlier mount to suit cars up to '67, the mount holes don't line up to the existing threaded holes on the chassis.

Not at all urgent, I've a huge amount of work to do before I will need the correct parts.

Cheers
Chris
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Hey Chris

as you can see in my pics the green relay is fitted to the side of my bracket. Before I checked out the link you provided for the German thread I didn't realise they were different. Interestingly the DecidedlySpecial had only 1 threaded hole on the right hand side where I could attach the bracket. Similar to one of the pics on the German thread. I just had to do it up nice and tight... it's not going anywhere.

Matthew :)
 
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