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How to Hook Up Aftermarket Horn

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Old Mar 31, 2014 | 04:36 PM
  #1  
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Default How to Hook Up Aftermarket Horn

I bought a chris products 12v horn off j&p cycles and cant figure out how to hook it up.

I figured it would be self explanatory but apparently not. I tried grounding the black wire in the pic to the battery neg and then messed around with the two other terminals; tried one terminal to the battery pos and then the other terminal, tried to bridge both terminals and touch the battery pos.. still no sound.

So how do I hook this up? I have a '90 sporty 1200, IIRC the oem horn had one ground and one hot wire. Not sure how to get this new one to work. And I cant use the old horn because it got crushed..

here's the back of the new horn:
 
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Old Mar 31, 2014 | 05:54 PM
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Hook the Chris Horn's black wire to the terminal marked X.
Hook your bike's ground wire to the same terminal marked X.
Hook your bike's horn wire (from horn button) to the terminal marked 2.

The black wire is the common (ground).
Terminal X is one side of the horn coil.
Terminal 2 is the other side of horn coil.

When you grounded the black wire and connected either terminal X or 2 to the positive battery terminal or when you bridged the two terminals to the positive you did not make a circuit to the negative(ground) side of battery.
The black wire is not internally connected to either side of the horn coil.
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 11:48 AM
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Thanks HeelDragger, but still didn't work. I tried hooking it directly to the battery and then tried hooking it up to the horn wire and hitting the switch (key on of course), still nothing.

Here's how I set it up, that's right isn't it?
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 02:03 PM
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Try grounding the the mounting bracket against a bolt on the bike then try your horn.
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 02:45 PM
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Still nothing... I'm thinking of just returning it and trying a different one. This is really frustrating, cant ride my bike until I get a stupid horn that I will never use just to pass inspection.
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 03:01 PM
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Try putting the black ground wire on the mounting bracket then ground to a bolt on the bike.
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 03:19 PM
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Put the black wire from x terminal to the mounting bracket and the red wire from ground screw to the bike and nothing. Also tried wiring ground screw to the mounting bracket and wiring x terminal to the bike and nothing.
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 03:46 PM
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You may have fried something. Direct current doesn't like being hooked up wrong.
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 03:57 PM
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That's what I'm guessing. I probably hooked it up wrong the first time or something.. Guess I'll return it if possible.
 
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Old Apr 1, 2014 | 04:00 PM
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You could do with a meter to test for voltage across the horn terminals,or wire up an 12v bulb/lamp to use as a tester.Does it make any kind of noise,just a click?...If it does I'd play around with the diaphragm adjuster screw,but that might void getting your money back on it.
 
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