Yesterday while out on my scoot, my horn stopped working. when i got back home, i took the horn off, put a volt meter on the leads, and got nothing. No fuses blown or anything like that either. When i checked the positive lead and a different ground source, i got 11.7 V. so, i know the switch is good, i know there is power going to the horn, and i'm fairly sure that the ground wire (which seems to be attached to the cylinder itself) is bad. Now, here is the problem, when i checked resistance across the terminals on the horn, i found no continuity. My manaul supplied an expected resistance (around 55 ohms if i recall).
That brings me to my question: 1) if the ground wire were to have shorted could it have damaged the horn as well...and 2) how do i go about getting a new ground wire to the horn given its buried under the tank etc. Hopefully there is an easy way to do this?

I am considering running a seperate wire from the horn to the battery ground just to verify if the horn itself still works, but that will be my job for tonight. Any experience or suggestions would be appreciated gentlemen (and ladies of course)

 

I just looked at my manual and it states it could be the ground wire or the horn mounting ?
Looks like the black wire is ground and the yellow is +12 volts but you can verify that with your meter.. on the dc volt scale hook it to the yellow wire and a good frame ground and press the horn switch and on the ohms scale hook to the black and a frame ground and see if you have resistance.. if so then hook again on the dc volt scale to the yellow and the black and again press the horn button. If your showing nothing thru the horn it self for resistance (ohms scale again) is say the horn is junk but that doesnt really mean it was caused by a wiring fault it could have just decided to quit. If you find its just a bad horn ground wire you can run a wire from anywhere on the frame you can find a good ground like the terminal on the right side of the neck..

 

Yeah, i'm definately getting voltage from the switch when using an alternate ground, but nothing when using the ground wire that was on the horn. In addition, getting NO continuity through the horn at all. I want to hook the power wire up tonight and run the ground to an alternate source and see if i can make some noise. If i can't, i'll have to buy a new horn i suppose.

If i run another ground wire, who has suggestions on insulation to protect the wire from the heat of the motor as it will be very close.

 

Normally...A bad ground wire will not cause an issue with the resistive coil (horn). It would only cause an issue with your power source, fuse or switch and only if the ground wire shorted to the power wire before completing the circuit (pushing the horn button).

I have seen intermittent grounding that caused an increase then decrease spike in DC amps across a resistive coil causing it to overheat and take out said coil.

They make hi temp wiring from 18 AWG to 4 AWG. Using this in conjunction with a nickle plated wire terminal can resist temperatures up to 600 degrees. It comes in black too. Be sure to use a star washer on all ring type connectors between the body and the connector.

Cheers

 

guess youll be reading all the threads on wich is the loudest horn?

 

Mr Wizard, thanks for that info as well, once i eliminate the existing ground wire as a cause, i'll purchase a new horn if necessary.

hahaha, nah, i don't really care which one is the loudest, i rarely use the horn to begin with, just hate knowing something isn't working correctly

 

if your curious you can take a 7.2/9.6 volt drill battery and run a test pair of wires of the battery and touch it to the horn simultanelously and the horn should make a pop noise that means the horns good no pop - no good. than from there if you have the power wire to the horn hott with a test light than change that ground. It just unbolts under the tank on that bracket should be able to change it out with an open end wrench . good luck and get that horn fixed we need all the help we can get on the road!

 

Just install an airhorn, that will get everybodies attention.

 

yeah, i considered it, but even the airhorn won't do me much good if the power to it isn't working. Also, i think i'm going to go with the "taylorized" air wing horn cover anyway

 

Great thinking.. looks like your on top of it..