Lame Horn

[TADracer]

Hi Everyone,

Not being much of an electrical guy I have a question for those who are.

Recently the horn on my 79 Special started giving off a really weak sound when the button is pressed. Since I had another horn, I connected that one and the sound is the same....so that probably rules out a bad horn.

Question, is there any kind of relay that may have gone bad or some other wiring glitch that might be causing this?

[petejw]

hi Tadracer

do u know that u can adjust the horns,
theres a little phillips screw and locking nut
on the back, loosen the nut and turn the screw
to change the pitch of the horn, might make a difference.

peter

[LoserShoes]

No relay, power comes off the fuse panel from one of the fuses that is fed from the ignition switch, goes to the horn, to the handel bar horn button which grounds the connection to the horn, which should then make a loud noise.

Going from the wiring diagram, the hot side of the horn should be a brown wire, and the switch side should be a red wire. Try grounding the red side and see if the horn operates. If so you need to clean/replace the switch. If not clean the fuse holder for that circuit, not sure which one it is.

Hope this gives someplace to start.

Oh yea, to check the horn just connect the two terminals direct to the battery.

Steve

[dpotter58]

I put these on my bikes. Whole lot more noise comes out of these than you will ever get from stock...Well worth 45 bucks...

http://ridesafer.com/store/item/1a82..._Air_Horn.html

[randy]

Nice horns, but draw a LOT of current:

Absorbed current: less than 18A

Do you have to re-start after each beep?

[TopCatGr58]

Blow your own horn!

Hey Tad,

After cleaning the horn button contacts, if the horns still aren't very loud, but they ARE when you jump the battery directly to them, then you might want to wire in a RELAY. You can use the existing horn power and trigger wire for the low power/trigger side of the relay, and run a NEW hot wire from battery/fuseblock to the relay, then to the horns, and then run a NEW ground wire from horns to frame. Then when you hit the horn button, it only needs enough power to energize the relay, and then the horns get the full battery power directly via the high power side of the relay. That's how I wired in my aftermarket set of horns!
T.C.

[dpotter58]

Originally posted by randy
Nice horns, but draw a LOT of current:

Absorbed current: less than 18A

Do you have to re-start after each beep?

No problem yet; I have had one on for over a year and I have really laid on them a few times. No dimming of the lights when used at night...

[TADracer]

Thanks for all the help.

I did check the horn by jumping it directly to the battery and it is loud. So it must be something in the wiring. I think I will go for the switch first since it has not been off the bars in several years and must be full of goop by now. And I will check the status of the fuse block too. If that fails then I guess I will wire in a relay like TC suggest.

Its not that I ever really use the horn much, its just that I like to know everything works. Just a quirk of mine, I guess.