Fiamms Installed w/o Removing Cannister

[dbrick]

The stock horn was awful, and for tree-hugging reasons - as well as wanting to not smell gas in the garage - I wanted to retain the charcoal cannister. This turns out to be doable.

The stock beeper is on the right. Remove it. With a little spacer under the top end of the mount, your new Fiamm Freeway Blaster ($7. from Ryder Fleet Products) fits right in. I used the bracket that came with the horn, and drilled a new hole so that the horn's mounting stud wouldn't sit right on the brake line:

[dbrick]

On the left side, the problem is the cannister's solenoid, which sits smack in the middle of the available space. Disconnect the solenoid hoses, unplug its electrical connector, and wiggle the solenoid's rubber mount off the metal tab. Without the solenoid, there's enough room to put the other FB horn in that space. Again, I drilled a new hole in the bracket to move the horn up a bit:

[dbrick]

I played with the solenoid, to determine how it could be mounted in the remaining space while still allowing the hoses and electrical connections to be made, and not interfering with the forks at full lock. My friend Mr. Zip Tie helped out:

[xprof]

Thank you Dave! I'm gonna do it!

[dbrick]

Finally, I added the vacuum hoses and the electrical connections. Note that I had to lengthen the vacuum lines a bit; I found useable 3/16" line at the local O'Reilly's (it's Sunday) along with white nylon double-barbed fittings to extend them. Because the stock 4.5mm vacuum lines are just a bit bigger, I put the 3/16" lines in the middle, so that the connections to the cannister and the solenoid were made with the original stock. The blue tape helped me keep the vacuum lines on the right fittings. I'll button it up tomorrow after I get some black paint at the hobby store.



I cheaped out on the wiring, and didn't order the matching connector - really, the stock horn's never going back there. I soldered up a neat little two-wire Y harness, so both horns can be unplugged.

It's LOUD and immediate, and a horn relay isn't needed as the ZFE controller has no problems with the current.

[xprof]

OK David, the horns are ordered. Want to post a pic of your y-harness?

Thanks again!

PS: I had a pair of Fiamm "Freeway Blasters" on my VX800, and they were excellent (as many inattentive cagers can attest).

PPS: Did 200+ miles today in on-and-off-again rain, just for fun, warm and dry in my rain gear and sitting securely on my PR2s.

[dbrick]

You're welcome, Mike. I have a set on the RS, behind the side panels of the fairing, and they're loud even from in there.

No pics of the harness - it'd generate boos and hisses from the illuminati. I used the connectors supplied with the horns, and soldered two connectors to the ends of some 18 gauge zip cord; this created a short feed for each horn. I cut the last several inches of the stock harness (and plug) off, then twisted up two bundles of three wires; each bundle has one of the original feed lines, and one line to each horn (the horns are insensitive to polarity). I soldered the connections, shrinkwrapped the bundles, then covered them together with plastic electrical tape (horrors!) and ziptied them to the end of the cannister bracket.

[xprof]

Thanx David; that'll do.

[deilenberger]

David,

My only concerns are (and I have dual FIAMM horns in much the same positions, but with the trumpets facing in so they now touch each other) - fork slider clearances at full lock and full compression. It might be worth checking that. I also had the right side horn about where you have yours and I was concerned with the brake line not only rubbing on the horn at full lock left, but also the potential for the brake line to catch on the horn mounting if the forks are compressed at near full left lock, and then extended. It does appear your horns are mounted further back then mine will go..

I'll have to take some photos. My canister came off when I found it blocked adjusting my front shock. I've never smelled gasoline in my garage due to the removal.

[dbrick]

Thanks for the thoughts, Don. I checked at full lock left and right while doing the installation, but not full lock w/compression and then release.

(pause to go into the garage, look, and fiddle)

It's OK. Since I took the pic, I moved the right horn back down to the lowest hole in the bracket. With the suspension fully extended, the brake line is still outboard the end of the horn's mounting stud, and remains so at right and left steering lock. The brake line doesn't move laterally, as the horn's mounting stud is only about half and inch forward from the brake line's end fitting, and even the "flexible" portion of the line isn't very. So suspension movement, no matter where the the steering is, won't cause contact.

There's almost 4" between the bottom of the lowest of the two horns and the place on the Telelever that'd contact them. That seems like enough clearance, too. Were it necessary, I could trim the bottom of the plastic horns a little.

[deilenberger]

David (et.al)

A few photos of how I have the horns mounted (now):





And without the Kisan headlight modulator mounted on the bracket:



Also how I used to have the right side horn mounted:



I wouldn't claim this is optimal, and will be looking at your photos when I get to printing them out and taking them out to the bike.. always room for improvement.

[dbrick]

Interesting how you mounted the modulator. I ziptied it to the right side of the electrical socket on the rear of the headlight bucket, then coiled up all the wire and ziptied the small wire coil to the modulator. It's up and out of the way. I painted it all black beforehand, so it's pretty invisible.

[xprof]

Don,

How did you wire them up? Any connectors (part #s) I should buy?

[deilenberger]

Don,

How did you wire them up? Any connectors (part #s) I should buy?

This is one of those mystery sort of things..

I was trying to track down what the correct repair connector for hooking to the horn connector from the wiring harness would be.. spent several days scratching my head on that. Then I looked in the plastic bag in the garage where I had some old horns stashed away.. and.. one of the horns had the connector on it (the one on the right side) - it was off an RT I believe, and it had a connector plugged into it that Y'd off to a plug that would go right into the factory wiring harness connector and had a pair of additional leads coming off that, with no connectors on them. The additional leads are the ones with the spade connectors on them that are on the left side horn.

Where I got the harness from is a complete mystery to me.. brain fart of some sort. I suspect the whole thing came off an RT.. and perhaps the RT has a "Y" harness made for dual horns. (Lemme go look on RealOEM.com)

Just finished on RealOEM - best I saw was: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=61&fg=33 - but this only really shows a kit to add dual horns to an 1150RT..

So - dunno where I found the connectors. I'm guessing it was at a friends shop where he gets in wrecked bikes from time to time, and I probably salvaged the horn/connectors off a wreck. Problem is figuring out what year/model wreck.

[mogu83]

Like Don always says 'All he information is on the list just do a SEARCH' (or something like that).


A picture of the horn connector plug:


Read this link for more info about the connector: http://r1150r.org/board/viewtopic.php?f ... &start=100


BMW Part Number 83 30 0 402 344
Which is tool number 0-610-619
BTW: This was my post and it took just a little short of forever to find it, sometimes search doesn't do the job. Sorry Don.

[xprof]

Thanks Harry! That very useful information got to me just after I ordered one from Nippy Norman's. What the hell, he probably needs the business...

[dbrick]

The connector you guys are talking about is right there in the Realoem fiche:

Group 61 ("General Electrical System")
Subgroup 10 ("Diverse Plugs and Connectors")
Third pane ("00197017" in the lower right corner in tiny type)
Item 9 ("Repair plug 2 pin")

The link is: http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mod ... g=61&fg=10

[glkok]

Thanks much for this information. I am about to take on this project. Are you connecting directly to the power provided by the old horn, or adding a relay and a new power lead?

[mogu83]

Check this old thread for some real good horn information. http://r1150r.org/board/viewtopic.php?f ... &start=100

I have a Stebel Nautilus which made it necessary to go through a relay (because of current draw). I think Don is running two Fiamms using the stock wiring so I guess two stock type horns would also work.

[deilenberger]

I have a Stebel Nautilus which made it necessary to go through a relay (because of current draw). I think Don is running two Fiamms using the stock wiring so I guess two stock type horns would also work.

Correct. The ZFE current limit on the horns was apparently set for the early RT which came with two horns (and the plugs for two..) so no problem running two "stock type" horns on the bike. I did manage to trigger the ZFE current limiter by stuffing a rag up the trumpet on one of my horns (to see if the horn was working..) and pressing the horn button. Apparently it draws more current pushing against a blocked trumpet. Who'da thunk it? Never had it trigger (off) when using the horns normally.