From The Region J Chapter AB-A

Newsletter

January 1995

Speak Up!

I recently installed some air horns in my 1200 and learned a few things while doing it so I thought I would pass along what I learned. The installation is very clean. No holes were drilled in the bike and I could return the machine to stock horns at any time (but why would I want to?)

If you want to install some air horns on your bike here is what I used to install them on mine:

1 Fiamm Horn Kit consisting of:

• 2 Air Horns
• 1 12 Volt Air Compressor
• 1 12 Volt Relay
• Plastic Tubing (you might as well throw it away because it isn't long enough)
• Hardware brackets and fittings (mostly useless because they are designed for cars).
• 1 Pipe Clamp approximately 6 inch diameter (to go around the 12 volt Air compressor and a frame downtube)
• Approximately 6 feet of 1/4" inside diameter rubber fuel line (this replaces the plastic tubing)
• 6 small hose clamps (approximately 1 inch in diameter)
• 1 section of ethafoam pipe insulation (check the plumbing section for this stuff - it's grey)
• 14 gauge wire (approximately 12 feet)
• 16 gauge hookup wire (approximately 5 feet)
• 1 In-line fuse holder c/w 10 amp fuse
• Short length of duct tape
• Packages of female solderless connectors for 16 gauge wire and one for 14 gauge wire
• A package of round terminal solderless connectors for 14 gauge wire.
• A package of 14 gauge solderless butt (in-line) connectors.
• 2 6x30 mm metric machine screws with matching lockwashers, washers and nuts.
• 2 mending plates approximately 6 inches in length.
• I found all of the above in my local Canadian Tire store.

Installation Steps

1. Remove the lower fairing from the left and right side of the bike.

2. Remove the machine screw holding the stock horns. (10 mm socket wrench)

3. Remove the two wires to the stock horns. Identify the positive lead to the left front stock horn. (On my bike this was the light green wire).

4. Remove the 6 mm screw holding on the lower rear fairing cover. This is the black plastic piece the spark plug protectors are attached to. Do not remove the lower rear fairing covers, only the machine screw.

5. Replace the 6 mm screw removed in the previous step with the 6x30 mm machine screw.

6. Fabricate "L" brackets from the mending plates to mount your horns. I bent my mending plates in a vice and enlarged a couple of the holes to fit the 6 mm machine screws I used.

7. Mount the horns on the "L" brackets with fittings supplied in the Fiamm Horn kit and mount the "L" brackets on the inside of the lower fairing covers to the back of the 6x30 mm machine screws. Mount the shorter air horn on the left front side (to leave more room for the relay which also get installed on the left front side) and the longer one on the right front side. Secure the brackets in place with washers, lockwashers and nuts.

8. Cut a piece of ethafoam the height of the 12 volt air compressor. Split the foam and wrap it around the compressor. Secure with duct tape if you like. The purpose of the foam is two fold. It helps to protect the 12 volt air compressor housing from vibration and scratching of the frame down tube.

9. Mount the air compressor to the left front frame downtube immediately above the timing belt cover with the large hose clamp.

10. Identify the terminals on the 12 volt relay supplied in the Fiamm Air Horn Kit. Because the horns draw a lot more power (8 amps) than the stock horns we need to use a relay to switch battery power directly to the horns. This will save wear and tear on the horn switch. Identifying the terminals on the 12 volt relay may require a magnifying glass because they are very small and etched on the black plastic housing of the relay adjacent to the pins.

11. Mount the relay with the bolt that was used to secure the left front horn. If there is insufficient clearance when you re-install the lower left fairing you may have to relocate the relay slightly towards the rear of the bike. I relocated my relay and secured it using a cable tie.

12. Route the fuel line from the 12 volt air compressor to the "Y" fitting provided in the horn kit. Route the tubing from the "Y" fitting to each of the horns. Use the small hose clamps to secure the fuel line tubing at all connections.

13. Remove the "tank" and the seat.

14. Put a solderless terminal connector on one end of the in line fuse holder. Connect the other end of the fuse holder to the 14 gauge wire using a butt connector . You will be connecting the terminal connector to the positive terminal of the battery. Remember to place the in-line fuse as close to the battery as possible for best protection.

15. Put a solderless terminal connector on another piece of 14 gauge wire. This will be connected eventually to negative terminal of your battery.

16. Route the two wires to the front of the bike in the vicinity of the relay switch and 12 volt air compressor and connect them using solderless connectors following the directions in the attached wiring diagram.

17. Using 16 gauge wire perform the remaining wiring connections as shown in the wiring diagram.

18. This is important: The wiring diagram shown on the Fiamm Air Horn package will not work on our bikes. It took some time before I found out the solution. Follow my solution in the wiring diagram exactly.

19. This is important too: When I removed the wires from the stock horns there was a light green wire (the positive wire) and a black wire (the negative wire). Do not connect the negative wire to ground - just let it hang there in it's plastic protector. It can't do anything. If you connect it to ground your horns will work only when the key is turned off, or when the key is turned to accessory but will not work when the bike is running. This took me quite a while to figure out so don't you do it too!

20. Double check your wiring.

21. Connect the 14 gauge power cables to the appropriate battery terminals. Remember the fused link should go to the positive terminal!

22. Fire up you bike and try out those horns! Wow!

23. Replace the seat and 'tank'. Put the lower fairing covers back in place and note how well the horns line up with the openings in the front of the lower fairing covers. The horns are quite invisible unless you look through these holes or get at the right angle to look into the 'gill' slits on the side of the fairing.

.. Brian Lucas