Getting to the horn on an X8 or Xevo?

[loonymoon]

How much tupperware needs to be removed?

The Workshop manual on wotmeworry says to remove bottom wheel housing clamp... but it's a bit scary when you read the rest of how to remove the wheel surround as it talks about removing the forks, something I'm certainly not prepared to do. Does the wheel surround need fully removing or can it be accessed without needing to take the whole bike apart?

[Dave Milnes]

Pass...
But it isn't unusual for Piaggio to mount the horn in the belly pan below the radiator.
A clue is there is usually a small grille or a few slots in front of it somewhere.
Your pic isn't working but if by wheel surround, you mean the panel that has the radiator grille in it, then yes, even on the X9 the front suspension all has to come off. It's the only panel that requires you to remove a substantial part of the chassis to remove.
Can you not just drop the belly pan out instead, even if it requires more tupperware to be removed first?

[poldark]

Carmen - Not sure if they've changed from X8 but when I did mine I only removed the belly pan (couple of screws IIRC) and managed to then remove OEM horn. 

In fact I took the entire bracket out and simply wedged in a Stebel to replace, which was such a tight fit that it remained in place with no other fixing, was a bit of a gamble but ran for 18 months without trouble.

There was a slotted vent in the forward facing section that the horn sat behind, if it's the same on an XEvo then this should confirm the horn's location.

[loonymoon]

Thanks DM and Poldark. Looks like it shouldn't be too difficult then... I'm pretty sure it's the same as the X8.  I'll have a good look tonight.

[loonymoon]

I just had a good look, which I should have done before confusing myself with the manual. It looks like a simple job, just four screws to undo to remove the bottom panel and then it should be easy to get to.

I'll ACF-50 whatever I can see while I'm inthere, including the screws as they're prime rusting ones!

[Diszy]

Hey Loon

What kind of horn are you replacing it with?
I've been mulling over the idea of a louder or less-tiny sounding horn, but one thing i worry about it if it'll stop sounding like a bike... then people won't think it's me that honked

[Mr.Chips]

First post in this thread - Loony's put a link:

http://www.x9ownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18840.0

 

[loonymoon]

Just in case anyone else trys this. Getting to the horn isn't difficult but you may find that if you unscrew the bottom panel (the one that runs beneath the foot boards) it'll give you better access to be able to undo the bolt holding the horn on as space is very limited there.

The other thing is that one small screw goes through the bottom of the belly pan, through the front panel and through a tab which is on the bottom side panel, getting the three panels to line back up again was a right pain on my Xevo (presumably it's the same on the X8). The Front and belly pan were OK but the screw kept pushing the tab up on the side panel rather than going through the hole. You need 3 hands, two to hold all the panels in place and one to do up the screw!