Comments on: DIY: Stebel Nautilus Air Horn

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:24:52 +0000

You’ve got to ground the negative wire from the new horn, yes. Just make sure you’re not running current directly through your OEM switch to the new horn, or you’ll blow out the switch in your hand control eventually. That’s the whole point of the relay. Glad you got it figured out.

By: Marco

Marco — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:18:46 +0000

Solved it! It was the (-) from the new horn…ended up attaching it to the top where the Stebel horn is now housed. Should be OK?

By: Marco

Marco — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:54:13 +0000

Hey Nathaniel,

I tried following some instructions I got off the CBF1000 (Honda) forum. However, whenever I hit the horn, all I get is a click. I have the relay and everything connected.

One thing to note though, with the OEM horn – it was connected with two black wires with no indication as to which is + or which is -.

That said though – my understanding is that 85 on the relay goes to the (-) of the OEM horn and 86 goes to the (+) of the original OEM horn…can’t work out which is which. But even with switcing the wires around, I still have no luck :(

All I get is a clicking sound. Any ideas?

Thanks
Marco

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:32:07 +0000

Okay, yeah, it sounds like your horn is different than what I’m dealing with. Is your horn the Stebel Nautilus, or some other Stebel horn? Or perhaps you’ve got a Nautilus that’s pre-wired to fit some specific bike. These instructions I’ve written are for the Nautilus itself, which in all three of them that I’ve installed didn’t come with any wiring other than the relay. Were I in your shoes, I’d tear into the Stebel harness, find the positive and negative, and then wire it like these instructions. However, without seeing what you’re really dealing with, I’m kind of shooting in the dark at this point.

By: Wobbly

Wobbly — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:37:41 +0000

Thanks again Nathaniel, and for your patience! Sorry for not describing this better. The wiring harness I was referring to was the Stebel wiring harness which I have plugged into the relay. The Stebel wiring harness has 5 wires connected to a plug which fits onto the relay. My last question. The diagram from Stebel’s wiring harness is different to yours and the harness has an extra wire. I’ll run with your diagram as its clearly working for others but where do I run the extra wire on the Stebel wiring harness to? cheers, Wobs

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:46:50 +0000

You need to forget about the OEM harness. Leave that wiring alone or you’re going to fry something elsewhere in your electrical system. I think perhaps you’re not understanding what the relay does. It’s a switch that is triggered by electricity rather than a physical button. This Stebel horn draws a lot of electrical current — a lot more than your stock horn. So if you just hook up the Stebel into the OEM wiring, it will eventually blow out the physical horn switch on your handlebars. So we use the relay to get power directly from the battery and bypass all the OEM wiring so that the power hungry horn doesn’t burn up something important.

So rather than hooking into the OEM harness, you should have run a brand new red wire directly from the battery (with a fuse) for power, run that through the relay, to the Stebel, then ground the horn to the frame. You then use the two wires from the stock horn to trigger the relay. The relay will then send power to the horn. You’re using one circuit (the stock horn) to trigger the other circuit (the new circuit you ran from the battery). Put another way, the relay replaces your original horn. The new horn is on its very own new electrical system, all by itself, and the relay is the bridge between the two. Don’t just tie into power wherever you can get it, because you’ll burn out gods know what elsewhere in the system.

By: Wobbly

Wobbly — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:31:24 +0000

Thanks for the reply mate. Yes, I used the relay. On your diagram you show 4 wires from the relay but I have 5 on the harness when plugged into the relay. With the 2 OEM horn connections, how should these be wired up? At present I have only one connection wired in. Could this be the problem?

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 05:19:21 +0000

You didn’t mention the relay. Did you use it? If it sounds with the ignition, it sounds like you’ve simply tied into power directly. The whole point of the relay is that it acts as a second switch for the power you’ve tapped into. You use the OEM horn connections to trigger the relay, and the relay makes the connection between the horn and the battery. If you don’t have the relay in there and you just hook directly into power, of course it will just sound with the key.

By: wobbly

wobbly — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 03:57:44 +0000

Hey Nathaniel, Thanks for the instructions. Unfortunately mine doesnt work. I think its something to do with the OEM horn wires or earth. I turn ignition on and the Stebel horn sounds. I bought the Stebel wiring harness as I am electrically challenged – mounted the hown no problems (in fairing of a GSX650F). The wiring harness has 5 wires – one each for battery + and – , (+ve has inline blade fuse), 2 wires have + and – marked so I figured they go to the Stebel nd teh remaining wire I ran to the OEM horn + wire. Any tips appreciated mate – its a bloody loud horn thats for sure – just perfect for my (too) quiet Suzi! Cheers, Wobbly

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:32:58 +0000

If you’re not running it through the relay like you ought to, I don’t know what help I can be. The Stebel draws a LOT more current than a normal horn. That’s why the relay is used. Driving that much amperage through your horn switch will likely cause it to fail over time and is likely the root of the issue you’re experiencing. Hook it up correctly, and I bet you won’t have any issues.