*FIXED* Electric help - horn is good, but the button doesn't work.

[tzzzel]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to make sense of something here.

My horn doesn't work.

At first, I thought it was dead, because the thing was so dirty that I can barely read the embossed text on it.

Then I hooked it up to my battery, and found that it sounded.

Well, I stuck a multimeter into the horn connectors. When I put my key ignition on the ON position and pressed the horn button, I got a reading of about .5volts.


When I look at the wiring diagram, I notice that the ground passes through the headlight/running light.

Could it be that my headlight is drawing too much of the current for the horn to even sound?

One bit of info that might make sense of this is that the previous owner seemed to have installed a SUPER BRIGHT, white bulb as the regular bulb. The bright bulb actually seems to be the regular bulb, or it is supposed to be the bright bulb, but the PO replaced the regular bulb with the white bulb. This white bulb seems to have a lot of additional items with it, including thick, thick cables, and a little metal casing that's supposed to be mounted with 3 screws. The bright bulbs I've seen before came with no such hardware.

I'd be interested in hearing what your thoughts are on this. I really have no clue... but I need to get this horn working because I need a safety update!

Thanks.

[fetor56]

Possibly the contacts in the button need cleaning....there is a spray for electrical contacts.
Please post pics of your headlight,etc as i'm interested to see this "SUPER BRIGHT" setup.

[tzzzel]

Possibly the contacts in the button need cleaning....there is a spray for electrical contacts.
Please post pics of your headlight,etc as i'm interested to see this "SUPER BRIGHT" setup.

I googled "bright bulb gs500f" and I think I found my bulb kit:

http://www.motorcyclehidxenonlights.com/Suzuki-GS500F-HID-Xenon-Lights/

Looks to be a 500k or 600k HID bulb kit. The wires and the metal pack in that photo look exactly like what I have. Probably draws a lot more power than stock bulbs.

[fetor56]

Possibly the contacts in the button need cleaning....there is a spray for electrical contacts.
Please post pics of your headlight,etc as i'm interested to see this "SUPER BRIGHT" setup.

I googled "bright bulb gs500f" and I think I found my bulb kit:

http://www.motorcyclehidxenonlights.com/Suzuki-GS500F-HID-Xenon-Lights/

Looks to be a 500k or 600k HID bulb kit. The wires and the metal pack in that photo look exactly like what I have. Probably draws a lot more power than stock bulbs.

Didn't know till now u had a "F" model so the HID figures....additional space required for ballast(metal pack)/longer HID bulb.
HID bulb draws less power than standard bulb,the wiring is thicker cos they operate with a much higher voltage.

[JAS6377]

I'm running a 6000k on mine with no issues. It's gotta be either bad wiring from the PO, or a short somewhere. I agree with fetor. Check the switch, and all other connections to make sure nothing is disconnected or corroded.

[Janx101]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong ... And it's just a Minor point ... As I understand it

Bulbs ... 4000k , 6000k ... Whichever ... Refers to the color as effected by temperature capability of the gas that's used in the bulb ... They usually are not more powerful WATTAGE wise.... Just different colours/brightness of visible light!

[Soloratov]

You are correct Janx. They CAN use higher wattage, but I doubt it.

[tzzzel]

Update:

I took apart the left contraption (choke, horn, blinker housing).

Had to pull out everything, because the horn contacts were at the very bottom.

The contacts didn't look awful, but I used my screwdriver to scrap/clean the contact parts.

Horn works!

You know what's really funny?

It took me about 20 minutes to take everything out. And took me 3 hours to put it back together and make sure that everything fit because I kept having problems with that and kept getting my blinker switch stuck and having to take it apart again  .

Anyway, problem solved. Thanks all.

[jestercinti]

Had the same problem. Turned out to be corroded horn contacts.