81 gs1100E horn replacement?

[Don R]

The horns on the 81 are anemic at best, is there a way to tune them up? They appear to be connected with two wires on each horn. 12V+ on one wire and the other wire goes to the switch that grounds them.
I have a set of nice loud Fiam horns but they appear to be chassis grounded. I'm thinking the best way to make them work is with a normally open relay? Use the 12V+ feed wire and left control button switch to ground to activate the relay and provide 12V to the horn feeds? The Fiam horns will get ground through their brackets. Does that sound correct?

 

[Rob S.]

The horns on the 81 are anemic at best, is there a way to tune them up?

Yes. If they're the same as the '82, there's a bolt front dead center that should 'tune them up.'

 

[Grimly]

They appear to be connected with two wires on each horn. 12V+ on one wire and the other wire goes to the switch that grounds them.
I have a set of nice loud Fiam horns but they appear to be chassis grounded. I'm thinking the best way to make them work is with a normally open relay? Use the 12V+ feed wire and left control button switch to ground to activate the relay and provide 12V to the horn feeds? The Fiam horns will get ground through their brackets. Does that sound correct?

Yes, that's correct.

 

[Don R]

Thanks, right now they're slightly louder than the turn signal beeper on my Goldwing.

 

[Rob S.]

Thanks, right now they're slightly louder than the turn signal beeper on my Goldwing.

And your GS doesn't even have a reverse gear! :hurt:

 

[Lorenzo]

These are mine

 

[rphillips]

Just me, I like the ones you can't see unless you get on your knees and look up under the tank

 

[Don R]

I did mine like Lorenzo. The Harbor freight horns came with a relay, I wasn't crazy about the sound so I got the Fiam horns out and used the relay on them.

 

[grcamna2]

I 'shocked' my stock Suzuki(under the front of the tank)OEM horn by removing & hitting the side of it against a 2x4" a few times;I didn't even need to adjust the small screw. The horn has an electro-magnet 'diaphragm' inside it and sometimes they(rust)stick:good and loud now.
Don,you said you fixed your voltage problem in your harness? That's very important to get a full charge of voltage to your horn.
The strength of the horn blast is a decent indicator of how your charging system is working.

 

[Don R]

I did get the voltage in the harness greatly improved. The charging system is tip top, gone through and fully tested. The horn relay has inspired me to maybe do a headlight relay.
Neither of these horns worked any better hooked direct to a known good battery. One isn't a Suzuki horn, hitting them with a 2x4 wouldn't hurt them and might be the cure, I did bang them on the bench. I was able to fix a Honda horn once by shooting WD40 in it and rolling it around to get it to the middle.