Air Horn Issue

[Boomer]

I recently installed a Stebel Air Horn on my Valk Interstate. It worked fine at first on first trip, then quit.  The next time I got ready to ride, it mysteriously worked again, then quit again.  Hooked it up with relay and inline fuse.  Checked inline fuse, OK.  I have checked the wiring to insure no shorts, and all connections appear to be fine.  I ran a test wire direct to horn to insure it worked, and worked fine when direct battery connection was made.  I have searched the factory manual etc; to see if there is a fuse to horn, but cannot find mention of one.  I checked all fuses, all appear to be fine.....

Any ideas? 

[R J]

Ground to horn

[MP]

Hoser had problems with his on the Inzane ride last year.  I believe he found the problem to be the battery ground.  Needed cleaning and tightening.  It takes a lot of juice for the horn, and if the ground, anywhere, is not good, you are out of luck.

MP

[Challenger]

I have had relays go intermittent as the contacts corrode. just a thought.

[sandy]

The mounting position is important. The motor needs to be vertical. Did you install it right?

[Boomer]

Turned out it was the relay.  Even though it was a brand new relay, a new relay fixed it.  Hopefully just a factory defect, not a short in the wiring etc;  but I retraced everything, and all appeared to be fine.  Once I replaced the relay, Voila!!

Thanks for the feedback and ideas.

[R J]

That is the 2nd bad relay I've heard of in these kits.

They must have bought Indian junk, so as to keep the price down.

[solo1]

Riders on the Vstrom forum use Stebels too.  Stebel relays seem to be a problem.

[chrise2469]

I took one look at the unsealed junk relay that comes with the stebel and bought a better unti.

Here is the guts of one of the stebel relays


Nothing like a bit of wire bouncing around free to mess up your day.

[MarkT]

I've found the relays in kits are typically worthless.  Throw them away and just go buy a regular 4 or 5 pin 40 amp relay at any auto store - typically $5.  I have around 15 relays on Deerslayer doing various things for 13 years now, and have had ONE of them go bad.  Some are even on continuously (the rear turn signal relays selecting the brake lines, the headlight low beam, one of the spotlight relays) without problems.