Horns stopped

Took the Old Red in for an MVI sticker and everything was great, except the horn. It had worked on the way to the shop but ended up dead. The bike came with a Vetter fairing with twin horns installed at the factory and we discovered that one horn was toast but one worked fine (jumped) and was plenty loud for an inspection, if it could work from the button. The service folks determined a bad relay but when I replaced it, there was no difference. Here's how it was wired, and remember, it worked fine a half hour before the shop:

Pink wire - ground on relay
Horn wire - power to device on relay
Brown wire - 'switched' connection on relay
Fused battery wire - to fused battery connection

With either new or old relay, with key 'on', pressing the horn button will make the relay click but not a peep from the horn. Touching the Brown wire directly to the horn wire results in continuous horn. Without resorting to a separate button, I am looking for some direction on getting the horn to work from the original button.

Any suggestions?

 

If pressing the horn button makes the relay click, then there's nothing wrong with the button/switch - the current is flowing.

You say the Brown wire to the Horn wire gives constant tone? Isn't the Brown wire coming from the button? If so it shouldn't have current until the button is pressed....

Sounds like you either got a bad horn switch, or a 2nd bad relay. Horn switch isn't that hard to take apart and clean, etc...

 

I'm looking at the wiring diagram in my Factory Service Manual for the XJ650 and I don't see a horn relay listed. According to the schematic, the brown wire comes from the fuse (10A) to the horn, then to the horn button, then to ground. The wire changes to pink after the horn button. Your set up sounds like they used the existing horn circuit, but installed a relay where the horn would normally go (not physically, of course). They must have then run a new hot wire to power the add-on horns. How many terminals are on the horns? 1 or 2?

 

Don't know about you guys, but when it comes to mechanics I can work most things out in my pea-brain. Electrics are like instant migraines (electronics even worse) and it seems to take a nights' sleep to understand what's really going on.

Gamuru, you are correct, the relay was placed where the old horns were. What got me going in the wrong direction was the fused wired from the battery. It is there, but is connected to the negative post. How the horn worked at all is surprising.

So when I have a few more minutes to scrape together, we'll try a re-wire and see how she goes.

 

Well a few minutes with some wire and patience and the horn blares at the touch of the horn button. The suspected incorrect wiring turned out to be the culprit. Wired (w/inline fuse) to the + terminal and then to the relay is all it took. Thanks for the hints Gamuru & Altus.