I found an interesting item at a yard sale for the huge sum of $4.00. I hooked it up and it works, oh man does it work.
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I am tempted to hook this up to my Miata with a toggle switch, but it might throw the weight balance off. ;-) This thing weighs 5 pounds, and I sort of have a feeling that it is not legal to use on the street.
The chrome is still mostly intact and like I said, it works like it did years before I was born, it is incredibly loud. Made in "the good old days". :-)
Not the most monetarily exciting find ever, with a value of probably $150.00 to $200.00 or so, but not bad, and it has been fun to play with before I send it on to the next owner.
I actually had a 6V source to try it on through a friend who is into all things vintage regarding cars, though I was told that I could use a 12V electric source as long as I did not leave it running and burn out the motor.
When I first saw it I thought it was a microphone.....Just about the opposite instead.
It's a great find! You wouldn't want to use it on a car, though, because as you pointed out it'll probably get you arrested and like most sirens, it takes a second or two to get going which is a BAD thing in a traffic emergency. There's times when you need an instant HONK!
At least my Miata's horn is instant although it'd a very polite beep, not a HONK.
Probably varies by jurisdiction. Years ago, my father got an "illegal siren" ticket for a vacuum-operated "wolf whistle" horn in Michigan. A cop in another jurisdiction told me I'd likely get nailed if I put a compressor/tank in the trunk and a locomotive air-chime under the hood of my 626. Bummer...
Woulda got the attention of the half-blind seeming dipsticks I was needing to drive amongst, methinks. I mean, c'mon... Yeah, the car is grey, but it's not PAVEMENT grey, and you're NOT welcome to attempt to violate the laws of physics by occupying the space I'm in! :)
Ditto that. Youtube is actually a great research tool for many vintage items to be sold. The constant research and learning is my favorite thing about Ebay, and without a niche, the learning covers a very wide range of items.
I never even thought about vintage sirens before, and now I know a fair amount of information on them.
It's about time to get this siren listed and see what the collectors think of it. :-)
I have a larger electric horn than stock. It sounds like an older car instead of the "beep-beep". I had the "Wicked Loud" horns on my last Miata, and this is like having one of those horns instead of two.
My horn was $3.00 and new in the package at Goodwill, compared to the Wicked Louds at over $50.00 plus shipping, so I went with that.
It hooked to the existing wire, bolted to the existing mounting hole, and has been working great for 4 1/2 years so far. The installation time was less than 10 minutes.
I have either 3 or 4 OEM Miata horns here, nobody ever seems to be looking for them. You could hook up another OEM horn and double your beep output, or even better, hook them all up. :-)
It would be rude to have any other kind, wouldn't it?
Rude driving -- the use of air horns and and other particularly loud and/or rude sounding horn--is a sign of aggressiveness, and I'm reliably informed that aggressive driving and its cousin, road rage, are not signs of good mental health.
A "louder horn" is one thing. An air horn, a siren, wolf whistle, or such like is another. Any of those might get my attention for an instant of time, but if it's not a true emergency siren, it won't hold my interest for more than an instant. Anyone who thinks that her/his impatience and utterly mistaken sense of self-importance obligates me in any way is bound to be disappointed and further frustrated.
A motorcycle is a different matter. Automobile drivers in general do not understand motorcycles, and if I were driving a motorcycle I would certainly want a horn that would catch people's attention. Your life trumps a polite horn every time.
Agreed. I shall never forget a Bangkok taxi driver I rode with on a few occasions who was so accustomed to blowing his horn in traffic that he hit it every few seconds without regard to the lack of proximity of other vehicles. He once explained to me that every traffic jam had a physical beginning. Say it was a two-lane street. He believed that somewhere up ahead there were two cars driving side by side at a very slow speed, slow to pull away at green lights, etc. There were no other cars in front of those two. If his horn-blowing would only be passed on by every car in front of him in both lanes, those two might be spurred to get moving and there would be no more traffic jam. I could not but marvel at his insight.
I wouldn't associate just a louder horn with aggressive driving. A horn's typical function is as a warning, either as a light tap (wake someone up), or a blast (you can have my lane when I'm not in it). Any horn just loud enough to meet those requirements would be fine with me, and a 'beep beep' horn is a little lacking. I haven't tried the horn on my 09 Miata yet, so I can't comment on it. I hope it's not too wimpy.
I changed the horn on my motorcycle. I rarely use it, preferring to move out of the way before signaling that they are about to run me over, but when I do find occasion to use it, it sounds more assertive than your typical Japanese motorcycle beep.
Maybe aggressive driving would be better associated with the amount of usage the horn gets. I might use mine once a year, but I've noticed people who use theirs almost daily.
The main places that I use mine is in parking lots to warn people that they are about to back into me, and a light tap to get them going when the light turns green.
Almost any horn will work for the latter, usually, but I like a louder than stock horn when a vehicle is backing my way.
I have had the stock meep-meep horn go unheard when I first bought a Miata, and had to use the shout method at them. The Wicked Loud horns, however, as well as the louder than stock Fiamm electric horn I have now have both gotten their attention every time.
The only one I've ever run aross is at a lighthouse on the north shore of Lake Superior. It's housed in its own out-building and IIRC has a dedicated boiler. It was defintely not something that could be attached to a Miata...
I know the feeling, I once owned an invisible car. Believe it or not, it was a metallic dark gold with white top 1975 Dodge Ramcharger, a very large SUV. I'd changed the manifold and carburetor as well as adding headers and glasspack mufflers so it wasn't terribly loud but it was nowhere near "stealth!"
Time and time again cars beside me would attempt to change lanes in to me and one unconscious guy in a Porsche was beside my left front wheel and decided to turn right into a shopping center! My ESP was working that day, I was locking up the brakes before he began his turn and missed him by inches...
The rig got scratched up over the years from heavy off-road use and the guy who ended up with it intended to repaint it. He primered it and all the invisibility problems ceased, who knows why? Last time I saw it, it was still primered and still visible to other drivers, I've avoided gold colors ever since!
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