Horn's dilemma

[manlio]

fellow rocksterers,

the horn of my 2004 rockster has been acting up lately. it sounded as it had a cold, and became weaker before not working at all. a mechanic in Brooklyn charged me $25 to move/reroute some of the wires, which, he said, were pulling on the horn wire and created the problem (I have extra GPS and headlight modulator wires).
the next day the problem was back and he suggested we change the horn.
If you play with the wires a bit, if will sound loud and clear, only to return later to a lame croak.
I checked the wire plug, which seems totally fine. If one pushes up the plastic socket where the plug connects, and honks, the sound is again strong and clear.
Needless to say, in NYC you need the horn to work. I wonder if any of you has an idea of what is going on and if the suggestion of changing the horn has any merit.

thanks a lot, Manlio

[Colin]

Sounds like the horn is failing. They often fail in a sporadic way, and if you hold the button down for several seconds, you may even be able to hear the tone begin to waver. Install a Stebel Nautilus - you won't regret it.

[boxermania]

Just something else to think about.

Do you still have the nylon ties holding the cable bunches under the light bucket? These ties are overtighten at the factory and with the normal movement (side to side) of the handlebars they have been known to weaken and cut through the fine gauge wires leading to intermitent and eventually failure.

There are a couple of recent posts on the R1150R thread at this time, check them out.

Good luck

[omg1010]

My suggestion, change the bloody thing to the Fiamm freeway blaster. This one consists of 2 horns (high and low) but you can buy the separately. Buy the high horn and replace the old one. No need to change any cables or relay. If you want to install both you need extra cable/relay.

Brgds
Oliver

[Jpainter187]

My suggestion, change the bloody thing to the Fiamm freeway blaster. This one consists of 2 horns (high and low) but you can buy the separately. Buy the high horn and replace the old one. No need to change any cables or relay. If you want to install both you need extra cable/relay.

Brgds
Oliver

Is the Fiamm a direct swap, or is a modified bracket also necessary, like the Stebel? My Rockster has ABS though, so not having seen either horn up close I don't know if either would fit or not...

[manlio]

Well,

I finally got a new used horn for $ 15 (from BeemerBoneyard), swapped it with the old one. After some initial failure - the horn would not work properly at times - I moved the cable around a bit and it has worked fine ever since.
I still don't know if it was the horn or the cable, but no matter how I moved the cable with the old horn, it would fail again.
Not so with the new one, so maybe both cable and horn were causing it. It works now, and I just don;t have the time to further investigate.

thanks for your help & suggestions, Manlio

[Jpainter187]

I am still hoping to figure out if I can fit a aftermarket horn (preferably a Stebel) on an ABS '04 Rockster... Has anyone accomplished this, and is it pretty easy to DIY?

[omg1010]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18286
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7124&start=0

Best regards
Oliver