Lesson on Fuses

[vandenham]

My car would not start last night and I had to get my son to help me tow it home - just a few blocks.

The problem was the fuse for the fuel pump. It visually looked good, but when I took it out the fuse material broke without hardly touching it. It is the circled fuse in the picture - I suspect it is an original fuse and almost seems like the fuse wire is made of lead.



I see that several of the fuses are really old and some are the wrong amperage. I'm going out now to buy a whole new set and will replace them all. I'll clean up the contacts at the same time. I read several times on this forum that this is one the first things you should do as a cheap way to prevent electrical problems, but as usual I procrastinated and learned the hard way.

[Maleficio]

CE looks pristine, though.

[vandenham]

Yes - I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago and saw that there were no water leaks from up above which is good news. But the fuses/relays are over 30 years old in many cases so are brittle and starting to fail.

[JK McDonald]

Hey Vandenham, You may have noticed that the fuel pump relay (XVII) in your attached photo also has a fuse mounted directly to the top of the relay itself. I think all of the earlier models can use a relay with or without the additional fuse. I've seen some wiring diagrams that will include this fuse in it's circuitry and others that do not.

You definitely have done a great job cleaning your fuse panel up.

Michael

[vandenham]

Thanks for the info on the fuel pump relay - it's good to know that it can be replaced with a newer relay.

I wish I could take credit for cleaning the panel, but it was like that when I first removed the wooden cover. I've only wiped off the dust. My big challenge these days is with the interior removing all the panels, gluing up the edges, fixing minor tears and cleaning up all the worn in grime.

Rick

[JJ 911SC]

Yes these fuses are something else.

Happened to me a week after I got the car.

In the last 2 years, I got 2 broken fuses (both on the 12V line feeding the coil).

They are all available (including the 5 amp) at Canadian Tire in pack of 5.

Do yourself a favor, change them by circuits (i.e. head light) and try them before moving to the next circuit. Also record any change that you do at a given position/circuit.

[Opelotus]

Are those jumpers in the 2 empty relay slots on the bottom?

[Linderpat]

Altho your panel looks clean, I notice an indication of excessive heat at that blown fuse (look carefully above the fuse). This could be caused by several things, including a fuel pump starting to go bad. The most likely culprit is that the contact was loose or not clean.
I would pull the panel and do a complete panel R&R - clean everything real well (I mean by that electrical cleaning with an eraser or contact cleaner). There are several good write ups for this job, and it is not hard to do. Make sure all contacts are tight - loose fuse eqquals heat generation, and that could spell fire.
A good write up is here - SharkSkin - Shark Attack Round Four - Bzzzzzzt! Fuse/Relay Panel Reconditioning

[vandenham]

I was originally planning to lightly clean the contacts and install new fuses, but after looking at the writeup I think I will remove the panel and clean each contact separately. Linderpat, you are correct that the blown fuse holder is showing signs of excessive heat. My fuel pump sometimes is noisy so is on my to do list. The fuse holder for #17 (Heater/AC Blower) is also showing some heat damage.

The relay positions XV (Starter Relay) and XI (AC Compressor) are both bridges/jumpers.

And to my fellow Canadian, I got some of the fuses at Canadian Tire and the others at Parts Source which I believe is a subsidiary of Canadian Tire.

Thanks for the support - it's great to slowly clean up the electrical gremlins and make everything work the way it is supposed to.

Rick

[harborman]

Originally Posted by vandenham

I was originally planning to lightly clean the contacts and install new fuses, but after looking at the writeup I think I will remove the panel and clean each contact separately. Linderpat, you are correct that the blown fuse holder is showing signs of excessive heat. My fuel pump sometimes is noisy so is on my to do list. The fuse holder for #17 (Heater/AC Blower) is also showing some heat damage.

The relay positions XV (Starter Relay) and XI (AC Compressor) are both bridges/jumpers.

And to my fellow Canadian, I got some of the fuses at Canadian Tire and the others at Parts Source which I believe is a subsidiary of Canadian Tire.

Thanks for the support - it's great to slowly clean up the electrical gremlins and make everything work the way it is supposed to.

Rick

I always hated those type of fuses. Best you can do is clean all those fuse contacts and replace all fuses with new ones. Check for any loose fitting ones and see if you can tighten the fit. Any bad contact may cause resistance which will cause heat and loss of power. Good luck with it.

[MPDano]

Originally Posted by vandenham

My car would not start last night and I had to get my son to help me tow it home - just a few blocks.

The problem was the fuse for the fuel pump. It visually looked good, but when I took it out the fuse material broke without hardly touching it. It is the circled fuse in the picture - I suspect it is an original fuse and almost seems like the fuse wire is made of lead.



I see that several of the fuses are really old and some are the wrong amperage. I'm going out now to buy a whole new set and will replace them all. I'll clean up the contacts at the same time. I read several times on this forum that this is one the first things you should do as a cheap way to prevent electrical problems, but as usual I procrastinated and learned the hard way.

Good find as that is one of the hard ones to find. I've replaced all my Fuses on both my Euro and S. They are very inexpensive and can save you from all the headaches of not knowing. I've bought the ones from eBay with Zero issues.

They are called GBC (I think) Fuses but I'm not seeing the Kit that carries all the different sizes.