How can I tighten the horn?

A buddy of mine has a stock 72 Interstate and the horn is a bit loose on its mount, and will rotate with vibration and touch the rear drive chain. Not good.

I've always said thet the Commando was built around the horn and for the life of me I can't see any way to get to the attaching bolt without major disassembly of the back of the motorcycle. Can anyone offer a short cut or have a procedure for the least painful path of tightening the horn to its bracket?

Thanks

maylar said:

A buddy of mine has a stock 72 Interstate and the horn is a bit loose on its mount, and will rotate with vibration and touch the rear drive chain. Not good.

I've always said thet the Commando was built around the horn and for the life of me I can't see any way to get to the attaching bolt without major disassembly of the back of the motorcycle. Can anyone offer a short cut or have a procedure for the least painful path of tightening the horn to its bracket?

Thanks

Click to expand...

I know it is not the question you asked and with my '74, I removed it. It also came loose and was hitting the chain. To much risk for me. When you do get in there, if he decides to keep it, get a couple of toothed lock washers with a lot of bite. Also, some Loctite. I do not think the earlier bikes had lock washers. Mine did and still got loose.

PITA but IIRC removing the rear fender is enough to get at it with a bit of cursing.

drones76 said:

maylar said:

A buddy of mine has a stock 72 Interstate and the horn is a bit loose on its mount, and will rotate with vibration and touch the rear drive chain. Not good.

I've always said thet the Commando was built around the horn and for the life of me I can't see any way to get to the attaching bolt without major disassembly of the back of the motorcycle. Can anyone offer a short cut or have a procedure for the least painful path of tightening the horn to its bracket?

Thanks

Click to expand...

I know it is not the question you asked and with my '74, I removed it. It also came loose and was hitting the chain. To much risk for me. When you do get in there, if he decides to keep it, get a couple of toothed lock washers with a lot of bite. Also, some Loctite. I do not think the earlier bikes had lock washers. Mine did and still got loose.

Click to expand...

Removing it is a good idea, I did when I rebuilt the iso's this winter. Replaced with a $10 flapper horn that I mounted in the battery box area.

Seeing how your horn has been bouncing around for a length of time, I would not be surprised that the threaded mounting hole in the back of the horn would be stripped or almost stripped out. That is exactly what happened on my horn. I had to install a helicoil to fix the horn.

I found that removing the rear fender on the Norton is not that difficult and that is the best way to get to the horn. When I removed the horn, I brazed the heads of the 1/4-28 bolts to the triangular shaped horn bracket. This insures that a wrench is not needed on the head of the bolts while installing or removing the fender.

PeterJoe said:

I found that removing the rear fender on the Norton is not that difficult and that is the best way to get to the horn. When I removed the horn, I brazed the heads of the 1/4-28 bolts to the triangular shaped horn bracket. This insures that a wrench is not needed on the head of the bolts while installing or removing the fender.

Click to expand...

+1 It is not that bad to remove the rear fender. The worst part of it is the particularly nasty black goo that exists down there - a slurry of dirt, oil and chain lube. Wear rubber gloves and enjoy.

Russ