Are bike horns different than car horns?

[Guest]

I picked up this horn (Stebel Nautilus Compact) on ebay last year, but have still to find a suitable mounting spot and whip up a bracket to use it on the bike ... it is LOUD...I made the mistake of testing it with a battery in the garage#-o ...took a while for the ears to stop ringing . It looks like the 'Bad Boy' horn Nate posted is a knock-off of the Stebel design....almost identical in appearance, except for the stickers and rated performance.

Tony.

Thanks for the info. I expect that I'll be acquiring one of those. $35 and it includes the relay.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. I expect that I'll be acquiring one of those. $35 and it includes the relay.

Just a note....on that site, all the pics show an improperly mounted horn:roll: ....make sure the horn is mounted with the compressor perpendicular to the ground, so the horn bell is facing down as well, as per the manufacturer's instructions....water getting into the horn could cause it to fail quickly otherwise.

Tony.

 

[tconroy]

I have a relay that was in the fairing but my bike wiring has 3 wires.1 works when I hit the button.1 is always hot and the other I think is the ground. Do i need the inline fuse at terminal 30/51 or should the always hot wire go here? The horn button should go to terminal 86 and the 12v out should go to terminal 87 and the ground is termainal 85. My horn has 2 connectors and a ground wire.that were im confused.

 

[tconroy]

here is a pic of the back of my horn.Maybe this will help figure out what im taloking about.Should the groun wire on the back of the horn go to one of the horn terminals here?Maybe that's what throwing me off.

 

[cberkeley]

No, I have no problems with the originals (or simply don't know better :-D ). I run a pressure of about 12-psi in the fork and works well for me.

 

[tconroy]

OK! Call me STUPID!!!!!! I have on the horn a wire that should go to one of the terminals.It's the one just hanging there.Everything is making sense now. Yes i was making it harder than it seem's.There is a good websight called.www.rattlebars.com that has a simple to read horn diagram for the Valkyries motorcycles that even a dummy like me could understand!!!!But this still leaves one of the oem wiring harness leads unused.I guess thats fused to the oem fuse box that will be changed to an inline fuse for protection so it will not be hooked up,Iam i right on that?

 

[tconroy]

No, I have no problems with the originals (or simply don't know better :-D ). I run a pressure of about 12-psi in the fork and works well for me.

I just put in new proggressive springs but have not had a chance to try them out yet.It's 19 today for a high and will not be above freezing till next weekend.I still have the option of adding air if need be.From what I hear it make a heck of a difference and it only costs 80 bucks for the springs.

 

[cberkeley]

I suspect that that ground wire may be internally connected to one of those two terminals. If so, you would need to know which one. an ohmeter would be useful to identify it.

 

[cberkeley]

If the ground is common to one terminal; then one of the following ohmeter connections should indicate zero and the other a value >zero.
View attachment 1701

 

[saddlewarmer]

here is a pic of the back of my horn.Maybe this will help figure out what im taloking about.Should the groun wire on the back of the horn go to one of the horn terminals here?Maybe that's what throwing me off.

wiring is as such as far as i can tell. from battery to ignition switch, ignition switch to one lug on horn, other wire from horn to horn switch, horn switch completes circuit by going to ground when pressed. other scenerio is just opposite, battery to switch to horn lug. other lug to ground. reason for two terminals on horn is so first configuration can work. neither lug terminal should be common to horn body. the lugs feed the coil that makes horn work. simple as i can get it.