Horn not working (watch for finger?)

[RiderX]

Ok but seriously, I pulled the left handgrip switch off the handlebars last night (while trying to work on my carbs) and gave up after finding no power at the switch. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Btw, I am new to the group (although I have posted over on adv for a while now) and I am now the proud owner of a gorgeous black '98 that was previously owned by CrashDBad. Picked it up from him in Scottsdale in July and rode it back here to its new home in Ideeho. LOVE my Tiger!

[nightrunner]

Hey, welcome to the club.  I remember CrashDBad.  I sold him the  ignition coils off my 98 when I upgraded.

On your horn, you're going to have to track the wire back until you find voltage.  Obvious but I dont see any other way.

Good luck with it.  They have their quirks but I love mine.
Cheers

[RiderX]

Hey, welcome to the club.  I remember CrashDBad.  I sold him the  ignition coils off my 98 when I upgraded.

On your horn, you're going to have to track the wire back until you find voltage.  Obvious but I dont see any other way.

Good luck with it.  They have their quirks but I love mine.
Cheers

Wow, this is almost incestuous; I am riding the bike that I bought from one member and has your coils in it  :shock:  CrashD even offered to give me to old burned out coils when I bought the bike. I have to say that I was very happy to find all of the old posts from him on this site and see all of the care and feeding he did on my bike before I got my hands on it. My friends over at the BMW/Tiger dealer were very impressed at the condition of my bike and how well it had been maintained. I love this bike more than any other I have ridden.

Back to the original topic though, I have tried tracing the wiring and I am afraid I am going to have to start stripping away wiring harnesses and insulating covers to find where the horn wires go to. I had hope they went back to the fuse box but neither did I find it there or any burned fuses. Ah well, back to the sleuthing for me I guess.

[nightrunner]

It may be worth it to buy either the factory manual or the Haynes (I think its Haynes).  Note that neither is Tiger specific but covers the whole line.  The Tiger specific manual came out in '99 (of course).  Anyway, the schematics should be helpful in tracing wires without cutting up the harness.

[RiderX]

It may be worth it to buy either the factory manual or the Haynes (I think its Haynes).  Note that neither is Tiger specific but covers the whole line.  The Tiger specific manual came out in '99 (of course).  Anyway, the schematics should be helpful in tracing wires without cutting up the harness.

I have the Haynes manual but perhaps you need to be an electrician to understand wiring schematics. To me it looks like a black line that runs from the horn switch to the horn to the rear brake light in the book. Forgive my ignorance, but I don't see any lines when I pull the seat and farings off of the bike, just a bunch of wires that lead into wiring harnesses and insulated tape and plastic.

[nightrunner]

Well it should also give you the color of the wire you are looking for.   I seriously doubt that the wire is simply severed somewhere in the middle of the loom.  Barring damage, most likely is a loose or oxidized connection at one of the harness plugs.  Also, are you sure the horn is functional?  That is have you put 12 volts to it directly?   Also, horns are frequently powered off a relay, which could be bad.  Also, I have seen fuse connections get oxidized, as well as fuses that blew but it was not so obvious looking at it.  Did you check continuity through the fuse?

Well you have me curious enough that I will look at the schematic over the weekend and maybe I'll have some suggestions on Monday (no ISP at home).

[RiderX]

Well it should also give you the color of the wire you are looking for.   I seriously doubt that the wire is simply severed somewhere in the middle of the loom.  Barring damage, most likely is a loose or oxidized connection at one of the harness plugs.  Also, are you sure the horn is functional?  That is have you put 12 volts to it directly?   Also, horns are frequently powered off a relay, which could be bad.  Also, I have seen fuse connections get oxidized, as well as fuses that blew but it was not so obvious looking at it.  Did you check continuity through the fuse?

Well you have me curious enough that I will look at the schematic over the weekend and maybe I'll have some suggestions on Monday (no ISP at home).

Ok, now you have me doubting even more. I looked at the fuses and none of them said 'Horn.' Is there a separate fuse horn somewhere else? I did pull all of the fuses to do a viz on them though and they're all good. At least the ones in the box behind the seat.
Another buddy also suggested running power directly to the horn or the switch (where there is no power) so I will give that a try this weekend. Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.

[harre]

I have encountered a similar problem with the light switch (in Swedish: "light horn") on that handgrip switch. The cause was oxidization on the switch surfaces inside. Just disasseble the switch (be careful not to loose any small parts) and use the edge of a knife of some abrasive to clean the switch surfaces.

[RiderX]

I have encountered a similar problem with the light switch (in Swedish: "light horn") on that handgrip switch. The cause was oxidization on the switch surfaces inside. Just disasseble the switch (be careful not to loose any small parts) and use the edge of a knife of some abrasive to clean the switch surfaces.

I already tried that, thanks.

I also tried yesterday running the positive and negative leads directly yo the horn and that doesn't seem to work either. Apparently it needs some sort of switch in between. I tried the same thing to the switch and also no joy. I am about to give up and take it into the dealer, but I know how quickly the labor hours can add up when trying to track down electrical issues!  :x

[Mudhen]

Have you tried adjusting it (edit - them)?

That was my issue a couple months ago.  I started the process you're going through right now - looking at the diagrams, etc, and getting nowhere.  I started to assume that the switch is just supposed to connect the grounds since I couldn't find power anywhere.  No idea.

Anyway, I searched on Yahoo starting on post 1 (back when Steamer threads were plentiful), and voila!  both my horns are working now...

[nightrunner]

Ok, I had a look at the factory manual and schematic.   The brown wire to the horns is(should be) 12v with ign on.  The B/W wire runs to the horn button, and B/Y wire runs from the button to ground.  If the horns are bad (or perhaps out of adjustment as Mudhen reports then you would not get 12 volts at the botton.  Triumph wires a lot of thier circuits this way; with the switch on the ground side of the load.  Its counter to what's typically done in the U.S.  I suspected this but wanted to check the manual.  You could verify 12v on the brown wire and continuity to ground on the B/Y.  I have not heard of the adjustment on the horn but definitely worth a look.  If putting 12v across the horn terminals did not produce a sound, then they are either out of adjustment or shot, but that is the culprit.  Its funny that neither horn went off though.  Anyway I would search the Yahoo group's archives and see what it has to say.  That group has been around since '96 or so.  I'll check the manual tonight and see if adjusting the horn is covered (or maye somebody here knows?).  I would suppose there is a screw and it adjusts the pitch.  Too far one way or the other and its silent.   But yes, for an hour's labor, you could buy new horns.  The shop is always a last resort for me.

[ned37]

any bike i ever worked on had the horn switch on the ground side.  even my cars work that way.

[nightrunner]

Interesting.     Any idea why they might want a horn to be on the hot side of a switch?

[Stretch]

Many european cars are like that.  The horn is always hot, and the switch controls the ground.

[RiderX]

Have you tried adjusting it (edit - them)?

That was my issue a couple months ago.  I started the process you're going through right now - looking at the diagrams, etc, and getting nowhere.  I started to assume that the switch is just supposed to connect the grounds since I couldn't find power anywhere.  No idea.

Anyway, I searched on Yahoo starting on post 1 (back when Steamer threads were plentiful), and voila!  both my horns are working now...

Ok, anyone come up with something on how to "adjust" the horns?