Some of you may have read my post on installing my Air Wing Horn cover a few weeks ago. I tried everything and cannot get the horn to work when the Air Wing cover is installed. The horn works perfect when the stock cover is put back on. It seems the horn is not grounding properly to the new cover, therefore I only get a muffled, sick sound out of the horn. I spoke to a local dealer and they told me that they have seen this a lot and they just rotate the horn around until they get a good ground. I have tried that and had no luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Could I run a ground wire from the screw which is "supposed" to ground the horn to the cover up to something attached to the frame. For example, run a wire from the horn ground screw up to the bolt that mounts the horn cover to the frame. Theoretically, this will ground the horn directly to the frame instead of going through the horn cover to do so, right? Is there potential for any problems, shorts, damage, etc with doing this?

If not, I guess I will have the dealer install it, but it just seems too simple to pay someone to do it.

thanks

 

Itdoesn't ground thru the cover ifyour using the original horn that has two wires going to it, which are positive and negative. The manual mentions about connecting the yellow/black wire to the gold post terminal which is the left terminal if your looking at it with the terminals facing you and terminalspositioned downward, and theblack wire to the right side silver post terminal.Also if the horn body touches the cover it will alter the sound.[/align]

 

The instructions for thecover say the terminals are not polarized so the wires can be put on either post. The horn mounts to the horn cover exactly like it mounts to the OEM cover so it should not be making contact with the new cover any more than it does with the old cover. I will look at the wires and the posts again.

 

I tried to install the Air Wing Horn cover again, I made sure that no part of the horn is touching the horn cover except where it bolts on. I checked the instructions again and it says the terminals are not polarity sensitive. The yellow and black wire is located on the left terminal and the black wire is on the right terminal. This is if you are holding the horn with the mounting screw pointing towards you and the actual horn opening facing down. I have tried switching the wiresback and forth and have gotten the same results. I have ran out of ideas.

 

Told ya so!!!!!

I spent days trying to get this to work properly and finally gave up and bought a different horn cover.

Perhaps a black cover to match your air cleaner insert would do the trick nicely?
HD do some quite nice limited edition black paint versions.

 

Have you tried running a separate ground wire from the ground screw on the horn to the frame? Seems like that would be worth a shot before giving up, and if it doesn't work, you won't have lost anything...

 

Yeah, I thought about that, I am not too familiar with electrical, would running the ground wire from the screw to the framecause any sparking, shorts, or other possible problems?

 

It's one of those mysteries of life. I finally just took mine in when having the bike serviced and had them do it. They ended up switching the horn out under warranty. No help but just wanted to share.

Primo

 

If I can't get it to work, then I will have them install it when I get my bike serviced at 5000 miles.

 

Usually ona horn that has 2 wires, one wire is power and the other is ground and the only way to tell is with a wiringdiagram,test light or a volt meter. If you try to ground the case it usually doesn't work on a 2 wire, you have to ground the terminal. If you take the cover off and it works without doing anything else I would say the cover is pushing one of the wires and breaking contact. You can run a wire with clips to any ground and the terminal and not get a spark unless you hook it to the hot wire. Whatever you do don't touch the wire to any chrome.