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Stebel TM80 horn order & install

The following is from another mc forum I'm on from a rider/electrician in response to an inquiry on wiring electrical farkles:

Low current stuff (radios with speakers are at the high end of this range) can run through a switch directly but anything pulling 10A or more (driving lights are a good example as are "real" horns) should be controlled by a relay tripped by a switch. Let the relay's heavier contacts do the heavy lifting.

The thing that most people get wrong in these projects is the wire run itself. Keep it short and direct (there is loss in any copper wire and, on a bike, there isn't any headroom to throw power away). Use the proper gauge wire (except for single LED panel lights, anything smaller than 16 AWG is a bad idea - 14 AWG makes more sense for larger loads) and make clean, tight crimp connections (if you're going to do a lot of wiring, bite the bullet and buy a real crimper - $50 isn't cheap but you won't wind up on the side of the road, at oh-dark-thirty, with a connector swinging in the breezes, either).

Tie stuff down! If it can move, it'll wear through, and a short can ruin your whole day. Cable ties are dirt cheap; use lots of them (cut the tails off cleanly - leaving them out is sooooo "rat bike" - and keep the cut ends close to the cinch - those cut ends can be surprisingly sharp).

Speaking of shorts, fuse that power supply at the source! If you have a 3' run from the battery to a horn relay and the fuse is at the relay, that's 3' of potential short looking for a place to happen. Fused next to the power source, the fuse should go "poof" before the bike does...

The ground is often the most abused part of any wiring scheme. I've seen elaborate power supplies that fed power hungry lights and then hit one sorry bit of wire tucked under a hose clamp somewhere. The ground or return line carries the full power load of the device. Do a poor job with the ground and you're throwing away power and making the device run poorly.

There are lots of aftermarket power distribution panels. If you're going to go nuts with accessories, use one of these panels to organize things instead of tying back to the battery or (worse) stealing power from some wire that happens to have +12VDC on it sometimes...

Color code the wires. At least use red for the hot side and black for the ground side. It'll pay off when you try to troubleshoot something or add yet another farkle. Make a drawing of what you did! Three months from now, you'll look at that wiring job and spend too much time trying to guess what goes where and why.


I think I need a pd bar........
 
That's a good bit of info. Here's how I wired up the switched relay that controls the power to the accessory fuse block/panel that I mounted up front. I used 12 gauge wiring everywhere. The picture is (obviously) before I connected everything and tucked and tied it all down.
 

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Two Stebels! Ohmigosh. I put one on mine but I paralleled the relay with the stock horn and the noise is incredible. I use it judiciously because I don't want to give anybody a heart attack or get myself a citation. I won't hit it without earplugs and helmet, either, too painful. Y'all might have to create a little bell choir kinda thing and play songs at your Meet-n-Greets!
 
My upgraded horns saved my kiester this morning. Guy started into my lane after rolling a stop sign turning right, almost into my lane when I got his attention. :trust:
I put a pair of Autozone aftermarkets (Fiamme knockoffs) on about 3 months ago, but after this morning, I ordered a Stebel compact today. The Fiamme's are pretty loud, but I REALLY want to get there attention.
 
Now that Whee and I are back on the road, safe and sound, I'm ordering the horns this week. Anyone else around this area (DFW) want a Stebel horn? PM me before Friday.

Then we can schedule a Horn Tech Day, complete with bbq and ice cream. If its not too hot, maybe I'll grill some salmon to take, too. :mrgreen:
 
TexasShadow said:
Now that Whee and I are back on the road, safe and sound, I'm ordering the horns this week. Anyone else around this area (DFW) want a Stebel horn? PM me before Friday.

Then we can schedule a Horn Tech Day, complete with bbq and ice cream. If its not too hot, maybe I'll grill some salmon to take, too. :mrgreen:


I'm not sure about salmon, but I do know that Chuck will wire horns for BBQ. :lol2:
 
How much are the horns? I'd probably just go for one, since I really don't like making a scene when I turn my bars full left and the button hits my tank bag...

Graubart said:
I'm not sure about salmon, but I do know that Chuck will wire horns for BBQ. :lol2:

Heck, I didn't even have to feed him to get his help with my spark plugs!

37291919-M.jpg
 
Squeaky said:
How much are the horns? I'd probably just go for one, since I really don't like making a scene when I turn my bars full left and the button hits my tank bag...
Let's everyone know you're still alive and kickin' :drums:

They are $18.95 for the pair, $12.95 for a single. Might as well buy both; you can install one on your office door. :lol2:
 
I got the compact Nautilus here but the price has gone up a bit...

there are other places but I am too lazy to look right now.
 
I'm agreeing with Chuck, I got the Ultra compact and it was around $40.
 
Well I finally got it all wired up and man is that thing LOUD!!! Just like I wanted it to be. thanks for all the wiring advice, it made it a lot simpler.
 
Re: aftermarket horn wiring 101

I have had a couple of people ask about airhorn installation and we haven't figured out how to have a tech day yet, but here is some information about wiring the horn - you'll have to do the physical mounting, but this should at least help get it working.

This will be as general as possible, but my experience has been with a DL650 V-Strom and an Aprilia Atlantic 500.

The easiest way to do this is to replace your anemic old horn with the new one. You need to find the horn and the wiring. If you follow the wires back from the horn, hopefully, you will find a connector that can be unplugged. If not, you will have to cut the wires. These 2 wires are the horn switch power and return.

Because the new horn is more powerful, it will most likely draw more (and maybe much more) current than the pitiful OEM horn. That is where a relay comes in. A relay came with the Stevel Nautilus Compact Airhorn and I strongly recommend using it.

The relay has four (4) contacts:
30 is the main power from a fused +12 volt battery connection
87 is the relay controlled power to the horn (+12 volts)
85 and 86 are the control points from the horn switch circuit.

Here is how it works: The connection between 30 and 87 is normally unconnected (open). When power is applied by pressing the horn button, the coil between 85 and 86 causes power to connect from 30 to 87, causing the horn to sound. Since the wiring to and from 30 and 87 is heftier than the horn switch circuit, it can handle the extra current needed by the horn. Without the relay, a nice long blast on the horn could fry (melt) the smaller horn circuit wires.

What you will need:
14 gauge red wire for the +12 volt side of the horn wiring
14 gauge black wire for the return (ground) side of the wiring.
16/18 gauge wire (color unimportant, maybe gray) for horn switch wiring.
an automotive inline fuse holder with a 20 or 30 amp fuse
the new horn and relay that came with it

Tools for a more "professional" installation:
some crimp connectors and a crimp tool
recommendened: soldering iron

There are ways to make this very clean and professional looking and also ways to do it "quick and dirty". If you want it to be reliable, make sure that everything is solidly connected.

Here are just the wires that need to be run:
1. A red wire from the + battery terminal to the fuse holder
2. A red wire from the fuse holder to terminal 30 on the relay
3. A red wire from terminal 87 on the relay to the + terminal on the horn
4. A black wire from the - terminal on the horn back to the - battery terminal
5. An 18 gauge wire from one of the the horn switch power wires to terminal 85 on the relay
6. An 18 gauge wire from the other horn switch power wires to terminal 86 on the relay

If you use crimp connectors, then you can use these to attach the wires to the relay terminal lugs, the battery terminals, splice wires, and connect to the disconnect horn circuit (if you didn't have to cut the wires). I have used just the crimp connectors, but I prefer to go ahead and solder them and have a more permanent connection.

Note - the Stebel Nautilus horn has terminals marked + and -. If connected backwards, the horn will sound like a weak, strangled duck (yes, I tried it). Connected correctly, it will make you turn loose of the horn button. :-)

Now, I will try to collect some pictures to show some of the parts...
 
The Stebels are on. They sound lovely, like singing canaries.
Big canaries.

Thanks for the help, expertise and humor, Chuck.

HONK, HONK!!!!!
 
TexasShadow said:
Thanks for the help, expertise and humor, Chuck.
Hmmm, I thought I was being serious... :shock: :-P

OK, some pics might help some other folks do this mod. I didn't take any until it was all wired and working.

Here is a woman with a mission - color coded cable tie sorting...
d70_1126q.jpg


We opted to mount the inline fuse holder and the relay in the battery compartment. That way we only had to run four wires up front - 2 for the horn (high amperage) and two for the horn switch circuit (disconnected from the existing horn, low amperage relay coil control).

Here is the layout in the battery compartment, looking from above, back of bike is at the top of image, front of bike is at the bottom.

fuse_relay_1127q.jpg


(the scotch tape is temporary until she can get some double sided mounting tape)

Another look at the battery area, this time from the left side of the bike:

battery_area_1128q.jpg


And annotated with the parts we added:

battery_area_1128annq.jpg


I didn't have any luck with photos showing the location of the horns, but they were mounted to the vertical tubular frame pieces inside the fairing.

Here is our working setup - Elzi usually does her bike work on the gravel driveway before it gets too hot. It just needed a little portable shade...
garage_1131q.jpg

The bike is still stripped naked in this photo...

She takes to heart the advice from one of her MC friends to "tie everything down"!
cable_cleanup_1132q.jpg


Hmmmm, all done - it doesn't look any different but that horn sure SOUNDS different (we could hear the echo when we tested it)... :thumb:

finished_1133q.jpg
 
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