This isn't a step-by-step guide, more of just documenting an alternate way of installing the horn in such a small space. So.. here ya go....
Removing the horn from the compressor
You may not know it, but the horn and the compressor can be separated. This gives you a bit more flexibility with installation. There is a small latch on the top of the horn that keeps it on the compressor. If you bend that back, you can slide it off the compressor. Here is the horn already removed from the compressor, and me test fitting the air hose and fittings at home before the installation. I've also removed the “wings” that helped hold the horn to the compressor. The air hose and fittings came from my local auto-parts store. I think it was about $8 for the parts.
Removing the old horn
Here is the front of my Buddy opened up for work. I've also opened up the front cowling for better access to run the wires. FAIR WARNING: There are a BUNCH of screws to remove to do this.
Open up
Here is another shot of the cowling opened up to help get the wiring tucked away nicely.
Installing the fuse holder
I had bought a in-line fuse for the installation, but my My Brother-in-law had a better one in his collection; mine used barrel fuses and his the easier to find blade type. It's connected straight to the battery with a 12V 20AMP fuse per the instructions.
Wiring: Part 1
Once the fuse holder was installed, we needed to extent the wires to get all the way into the from cowling area and eventually to the relay and compressor. The wires were soldered on, then covered in shrink-tubing. Did I mention my BIL has ALL the tools
Drill and grind
The nice part about separating the horn from the compressor, is that you can mount the compressor on bracket where the original horn was. BUT... you'll first have to drill out the bracket(s) to accommodate the new compressor screw, and then give yourself a bit more room by cutting off the nut that was tack welded on for the original horn screw. Here you can see the might Dremel going to town on the nut.
Gind it!
Here is the the nut freshly ground off. Once the bracket had cooled from all the cutting, we went back and ground the rest of the nut off to make it nice and clean for the new bolt.
Horn prep
A rather blurry shot of us prepping the horn for gluing. We re-used the metal bracket that held the original horn (see the Removing the old horn shot to see it in place) and super-glued it to the horn. Once it was dry, we went back over the bracket and horn with some JB Weld to strengthen the bond. We also put some on the air-fitting for the hose on the horn.
More drilling
While we were waiting for the JB weld to setup a bit, we drilled out another screw hole to mount the horn relay. This mount is right about the CDI, and in not in use for anything on my Buddy. Not really sure why it's there. We tapped it for a ¼” coarse thread screw to attach the relay. We also had to auger the relay's mounting tab just a smidgen to fit the bolt.
Wiring: Part 2
Here is the relay mounted and the wires from the battery, and the original horn wires have been installed. After this it was just a matter of bolting the compressor and horn on either side of the front bracket, and then running the final wires to the compressor's + and – terminals. You can also see the square-head bolt in place that the compressor will hang from.
All installed
Here is the finished installation. We used a wire tie to help secure the air-hose to the horn assembly, although it's already tight on the fitting. We cut a small piece of extra hose to put around the section were the bolt rubs against it, just to be safe. You can also see the re-used metal bracket glued to the horn assembly. All the bots got some blue Lock-tite on them as well.
All in all, a great alternate way to install the horn, but a fair amount of work.
