i had an issue last night with my truck starting, it ran fine and i shut if off and ran in the store and came back out to leave and the truck was totally dead. a fellow member and i have narrowed it down to my fusible links acting up. i want to delete them and put inline fuses in their place, so heres my idea

cut the link off about an inch up from the black Y and splice an inline fuse in its place.

the questions i have are,

how many amps do the fuseable links handle? so i know what fuse size to put in

will the inline fuse idea work?

what gauge wire should i use for the inline fuses?

 

The purpose of a fusible link, is that, it can take a spike load.........and live.
IF you put a fuse in that will hold up to the spike loads.............it won't blow until you have melted some wire, if a real short happens.



Flash

 

cant i put in a little under amped fuze so that if it spikes it will blow?

 

a voltage spike is normal in some cases.

When you turn a load on (head light, Blower motor, wiper exc) it take more amps to get it going then it does to run it.
IF you turn all of then on at once, you get a HIGH amperage for a split sec and then it drops to normal. If you put the right amp fuse in there it will pop when there is noting wrong with the system.

If you put a fuse in that will handle the spike voltage...........It will not save you wiring, if the B+ develops a short.


Flash

 

flash thanks for the better explanation, so if i were to inline fuse it what size would i be looking to use

 

You welcome, can't answer that one as, my service manual is missing or miss placed............................................


Flash

 

Fusible links are very reliable and easy to test. Replacement fuses will be bulky and not as relaible(they rust) To check a fusible link: has it got obvious smoke damage? Is part of wire especially soft? Wiggle the link and see if anything blinks off. There is no majic associated with links. IMHO - Leave em be!

 

Hello,

If you are having a problem with the fusible link it should be replaced in it's entirety. I would not recommend a fuse.

Damon

 

i dont think fuses will be bulky at all, ive seen in the sticky that alot of guys are cutting out the fusible links and makin a kind of auxilary fuse panal.

 

BearKiller has done some reseaerch on this subject if I am not mistaken...

check this thread:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=181955

 

thanks chrisreyn i appreciate the help and im deffinatly gonna be under the hood on my b day (saturday) the questions i have are

that says its rated at 60amp max, does that mean that the fusible links can handle more then 60 amps? i wanna under rate the fuse because i want it to blow before the circuit burns up.

 

I couldnt tell ya.. youd be better off PM'ing Bearkiller and asking him about it. I havent done that conversion, just read the thread.

 

I have rolls of the Fuse Link wire that I use when I used to work on automotive electrical systems and I remember using the wire about 3 to 4 AWG sizes smaller that you were replacing.

You could use regular automotive wire of the proper gauge however this might cause a fire if it was to get hot enough, Fuse Link wire is usually made with Hypalon or other flame retardant material that won’t support combustion.

Fuse Links will take sustained overloads where the melt style fuse will not, have you ever pulled the old glass style fuse and seen the fuse link sagging into a -U- shape in the barrel? This was caused from a sustained overload that just gets the link hot enough to soften and sag but not blow.

Here is some information you might want to bookmark.
http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/fusible-link.shtm

Back in the late 60’s I worked in electronics and we had installed fuse link wire in some equipment for the Lunar Landing where the inspectors put a sticker on the link to tag it and when the link got hot enough to blow, the tag would burst into flames.

You can get Fuse Link wire at better auto parts and I have bought it at Napa before.

I would not replace it with a glass fuse because of in your truck where the loss of power because of a slight overload on some of the critical circuits could prove to be fatal to yourself or others if it failed.

If I were to do anything I would replace it with a Self Resetting Circuit Breaker.

BTW always use a Self Resetting Circuit Breaker for your trailer brake circuit never a fuse.

I hope this is of some help.
Jim