gooddoggie
Member
I am extracting some posts from the Big Dog Owners Group forum that relate to this mod, hopefully I can organize them in some logical order that makes sense since they were scattered all over that forum. First here is the horn we are talking about;
WOLO BAD BOY™ ONE-PIECE AIR HORNS AND HEAVY-DUTY COMPRESSORS COMBINATION - JCWhitney Truck Parts
or do a search on "Stebel Nautilis air horn" which is the one I bought or if you have a new 2008 J&P catalog a chrome version is at the bottom of p. 290 for $64. I have seen them cheaper on Ebay also.
The new horn and the bracket (from a garage door motor mounting kit) I made to mount it.
The installation location of the new horn between the swing arm tubes. Obviously the chrome one would look nicer. This photo also shows the Scorpio alarm where the stock horn used to be;
This shows the relay which I mounted to the mounting bolt of the EHC;
This one shows a top view of the 2 wires (Red 20 amp fused on the + post and blue ground on the - post) connected to the battery.
Here are some posts copied from the Big Dog owners Group forum after several people tried unsuccessfully to adapt a HD sportster horn to our BD's, it ended up sounding just like our stock horns so people were switching to the air horn solution but had some questions regarding wiring;
go4dave
Boston Terrier
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 351
Location: Las Vegas
PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:42 am Reply with quoteBack to top
New horn,,,, low voltage,,, EHC,, and relay..
I bought a new horn STEBEL,, it's a small compact duel tone air horn.. it will fit where my stock horn did.
I've been reading these threads,,, but i'm still a little confused about the Proper wiring. The new horn needs a relay, because of the low voltage coming from the EHC. Here's my question, Should the RELAY have 3 poles ( 1 = 12V from battery, 2 = low voltage from EHC, 3 = pwr out going to the positive terminal on the horn) ????
MY RESPONSE;
gooddoggie
go4dave;
I have had absolutely no problem with the Stebel horn since I bought it and it either with it dependibility or volume and yes as I explained earlier you do need a relay but mine already came with it. If you look closely at the relay you will see how the terminals are marked with 85, 87, 86, & 30/51 respectively. I hooked it up as follows;
1. use BD existing grey wire (on 05 chopper) from your EHC and connect it onto relay terminal 86
2. run a wire from relay terminal 30/51 to your positive battery terminal but install a 20 amp inline fuse to this line. It may be over kill but I believe I used a 14 gu wire, but not sure, it's been awhile, just make sure the wire is sufficient to handle the 20 amps. 16 will probably do just fine.
3. run a wire from the negative battery post to relay terminal 85
4. use existing horn ground wire and attach it to the "-" terminal on the new horn.
5. run a wire from relay terminal 87 to the positive terminal of the new horn.
So the relay terminal 87, which is normally open, closes and passes the 12volts to the horn through relay terminal 30/51 when low EHC input current is detected at terminal 86. That's pretty much it. If I remember correctly there was a warning message that said to mount the horn vertically, why that is? I suspect because of possible moisture getting in if it rained and it was not mounted vertically. Good luck, hope you like it as much as I do mine, great horn that stops people in their tracks, well almost Laughing
Thanks Doggie,,,,, on another post,,, i put up pictures,,, my HORN instructions said 1 thing,, and the RELAY said another. Anyway,, i wired it like you did, and i mounted it with the vent vertically!! I'll post up some pics,, when i get it all done.
thanks again for your help... and i'm ready to stop people in their tracks!!!
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05 BD Chopper
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go4dave
Boston Terrier
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 351
Location: Las Vegas
PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:47 pm Reply with quoteBack to top
Hey Doggie, i got my Stebel off ebay,, and i got the chrome one, and a black 1 for my Dad. They work and sound great. thanks for you help on the wiring.
WOLO BAD BOY™ ONE-PIECE AIR HORNS AND HEAVY-DUTY COMPRESSORS COMBINATION - JCWhitney Truck Parts
or do a search on "Stebel Nautilis air horn" which is the one I bought or if you have a new 2008 J&P catalog a chrome version is at the bottom of p. 290 for $64. I have seen them cheaper on Ebay also.
The new horn and the bracket (from a garage door motor mounting kit) I made to mount it.
The installation location of the new horn between the swing arm tubes. Obviously the chrome one would look nicer. This photo also shows the Scorpio alarm where the stock horn used to be;
This shows the relay which I mounted to the mounting bolt of the EHC;
This one shows a top view of the 2 wires (Red 20 amp fused on the + post and blue ground on the - post) connected to the battery.
Here are some posts copied from the Big Dog owners Group forum after several people tried unsuccessfully to adapt a HD sportster horn to our BD's, it ended up sounding just like our stock horns so people were switching to the air horn solution but had some questions regarding wiring;
go4dave
Boston Terrier
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 351
Location: Las Vegas
PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:42 am Reply with quoteBack to top
New horn,,,, low voltage,,, EHC,, and relay..
I bought a new horn STEBEL,, it's a small compact duel tone air horn.. it will fit where my stock horn did.
I've been reading these threads,,, but i'm still a little confused about the Proper wiring. The new horn needs a relay, because of the low voltage coming from the EHC. Here's my question, Should the RELAY have 3 poles ( 1 = 12V from battery, 2 = low voltage from EHC, 3 = pwr out going to the positive terminal on the horn) ????
MY RESPONSE;
gooddoggie
go4dave;
I have had absolutely no problem with the Stebel horn since I bought it and it either with it dependibility or volume and yes as I explained earlier you do need a relay but mine already came with it. If you look closely at the relay you will see how the terminals are marked with 85, 87, 86, & 30/51 respectively. I hooked it up as follows;
1. use BD existing grey wire (on 05 chopper) from your EHC and connect it onto relay terminal 86
2. run a wire from relay terminal 30/51 to your positive battery terminal but install a 20 amp inline fuse to this line. It may be over kill but I believe I used a 14 gu wire, but not sure, it's been awhile, just make sure the wire is sufficient to handle the 20 amps. 16 will probably do just fine.
3. run a wire from the negative battery post to relay terminal 85
4. use existing horn ground wire and attach it to the "-" terminal on the new horn.
5. run a wire from relay terminal 87 to the positive terminal of the new horn.
So the relay terminal 87, which is normally open, closes and passes the 12volts to the horn through relay terminal 30/51 when low EHC input current is detected at terminal 86. That's pretty much it. If I remember correctly there was a warning message that said to mount the horn vertically, why that is? I suspect because of possible moisture getting in if it rained and it was not mounted vertically. Good luck, hope you like it as much as I do mine, great horn that stops people in their tracks, well almost Laughing
Thanks Doggie,,,,, on another post,,, i put up pictures,,, my HORN instructions said 1 thing,, and the RELAY said another. Anyway,, i wired it like you did, and i mounted it with the vent vertically!! I'll post up some pics,, when i get it all done.
thanks again for your help... and i'm ready to stop people in their tracks!!!
_________________
05 BD Chopper
View user's profileSend private message
go4dave
Boston Terrier
Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 351
Location: Las Vegas
PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:47 pm Reply with quoteBack to top
Hey Doggie, i got my Stebel off ebay,, and i got the chrome one, and a black 1 for my Dad. They work and sound great. thanks for you help on the wiring.
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