Horn Installation made 'simple'

[chicagorandy]

I just swapped my OEM horn for one with much more "authority" and took pics along the way which may be helpful to others who want to try the easy modification. The handlbar horn button activates the new horn but uses a 12v 30amp relay to send the power.

Parts were some 16ga red & black wire, a piggyback fuse gizmo, spade and ring connectors and a 12v 30 amp relay. All items were purchased from a local autoparts store.

Remove the lower fairing cover and unplug the 2 wires going to the OEM horn. Unbolt the horn (one 10 mm nut at the rear of the horn).



Pull the wires up thru the grommet in the fairing to a point near the battery - this is where some extra long needle nose pliers or 12" hemostats are handy to have. It is a little fiddly process.



These two wires plug into the new relay at terminals #85 and #86 - it does not matter which goes to which. The numbers are cast into the relay.



Next comes the 12v power input - I used a piggyback fuse gizmo plugged into the OEM fusebox onto an existing fuse that has power on when the ignition is on.





I then spliced on a length of red 16ga wire and crimped on a spade connector. This plugs into relay #30/51 as the 12v Input.




Now run another red wire from the horn location up thru the fairing grommet (hemostat helps) and crimp on another spade connector. This will plug into relay #87 and is the 12v Output. I then zip tied the relay to a frame member. The other end plugs into one of the new horn's spade terminals - does not matter which one.





Almost done. Make up a short jumper ground wire (16ga black wire) with a spade connector on one end and a ring terminal on the other. Connect one end to the other horn spade connector and I used one of the two 10mm bolts holding the horn brace to attach a good firm ground.





Replace the lower fairing piece - the horn I chose fits behind the cover without issue. A second horn can be run on the left side off the same relay. Just splice a red wire from one horn terminal to the next one and create a 2nd ground wire. Easy- Peasy.



In truth it took me longer to resize the pics and write up this posting than to do the work on the bike.

[Gator Mike]

Nice installation. Haven't seen a piggy back fuse holder like that before,..... neat. I did notice the horn looks like it's tilted up some in the pix, hope it doesn't collect water. Later.......Gator Mike

[Lucasind]

.....Nice write up.....I can relate ,on the "it takes longer to make the post"
than to do the work, sometimes
thanks for sharing !..........................tony

[chicagorandy]

I decided to swap out both horns today so I went over to Advance Auto Parts and picked up a matched pair of Wolo High and Low tone horns.

Not much to say beyond the pics. I ran another red wire from the relay over to the left side, but found that to fit under the left lower fairing cover I needed to change the mounting over to a #3 Phillips screw going into the inner fairing to the frame. I used the same point to mount the black wire ground.









As you might expect the horn has gone from the pretty anemic 'beep'beep' to a robust HONK! that should motivate the cagers or at least let them know I'm IN the lane they are trying to occupy on the highway.

[gwwing93]

thanks nice job on the pic's and write up how i can get some new horns too.

[ghostler]

Nice job, congrats.

Talking about loud, I removed one Wolo Bad Boy air horn from the pair installed by previous owner, and redid his wiring. One is definitely loud enough to be noticed and each come paired with hi and lo in one unit. Gave the other to a friend. Wire tied the two dangling connectors on right side now without horn to frame.
Those horns are loud enough, I didn't need 2.

[voyager55]

I went with two sets of Rivco air horns, One set on each side of the bike. They come with a cable the makes hooking them up very easy. no extra wiring needed.
I can wake the dead with these babies! lol
At times thou, certain drivers make me want to install Train horns!!