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dead horn

cromwell

Active Member
Ok I am work and needed to use my horn and behold, NADA. Checked and it appears I do not have any blown fuses. What is an easy way to determine I have a bad horn or if it could be a bad switch?? I do have access to a voltmeter.

Thanks

Tony
 
Have you ridden in the rain lately or washed the bike? If so, sometimes they just need to dry out. I'd also give it a few taps and see if that helps.
 
Have you done any work or mods to the bike just before this happened? I had a "no horn" issue with an after market horn that had worked fine for a long time. Discovered that the last time I had disconnected everything from the battery, I had reconnected both horn leads to the same battery terminal. Trust me, it doesn't work very good hooked up this way!
 
It might just be bad.
Sportsters take the same PN as a bagger.
I had to replace both the Sportster and Ultra horns through the years.
Nothing else, just take the horn off and connect it to a battery.
No beep, the horn is bad.
 
Check the connections with the meter when you press the horn button.

Lots of times the adjustment screw which is also the ground contact inside the horn will get rusted and not operate then. If you change the position of that screw while trying the horn and maybe tap on it too, it may start working again. Then exercise it good but don't change the original position of the screw without marking the position first.
 
Ok I am work and needed to use my horn and behold, NADA. Checked and it appears I do not have any blown fuses. What is an easy way to determine I have a bad horn or if it could be a bad switch?? I do have access to a voltmeter.

Thanks

Tony

A quick check of the horn would be to un plug it, use another battery or battery charger hooked up to spade terminal ( positive) on horn and ground on the horn body this should sound the horn. As Glider has said there is an adjustment screw on the stock horns some are plastic so go easy as you turn it to increase the volume. Older model horns were Delco -Remey you could replace it with a G M car horn for cheap and it should fit under the chrome cover
 
@ hammerhead, I ride the bike rain/snow/sun shining and lately in Ireland its more rain than shine.. As long as there is no ice on the road I ride (does help that the only vehicle I own is the bike)..

@ Dr Dolittle, no mods bike is all stock.

Just got home and its getting to dark to see will test tomorrow and let you know the out come.
 
You mentioned that you have a volt meter. Simply measure the voltage across the horn terminals. You should see 12 volts DC ( or close to it) when you press the horn button. If you do, the horn is bad. Mine was so I replaced it with Howards Hog Horns. If you do not have voltage there, might be a bad switch or a bad ground connection.
 
Just finished testing and it appears the horn is toast. Now to order a new one. Now to see if I can find it on the net...
 
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