If you think you're having a bad day...

saudivette

Clueless In Sandland
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
2,633
Location
Aussie expat in Saudi Arabia
Try mine on for size!

I went to reconnect my started motor today, only to find that the wires had all been seen to by Bubba. The fuseable links had been wired in using the twist and wrap method then the original ends attached to the fuseable links the same way. It really was a shower of shit.

I tried cutting them back and cleaning up the new bare ends and soldering them together but they were just too oil soaked to do anything other than make a burning oil smell.

I finally got to a stage where I thought that I'd just cut the damn things off and go into town and buy some new fuseable links and put it all together correctly - well, far more correctly than it was. All you electricians out there will probably jump all over me but for a dull old aircraft technician, I thought I was being pretty damn clever soldering the wires together and covering the joints with heat shrink!

Of course, it was 1 o'clock this afternoon when I ran the snips through the wires. DOH! Shop's don't open again until 4pm in this dump. So, re-clocked my alternator and tinkered with some other shit that needed doing until 4pm. Drove into town and went to every bastarding spare parts shop in 4 blocks and not a single one of them had a fuseable link - well, a couple had inline fuses for a stereo but nothing big and meaty for a starter motor. One place had a complete positive battery cable to suit a Caprice Classic that he thought I might like to spend (approx) $25 buying so I could hack the fusebale link off the end. Idiot.

Any time I need parts, I don't say "82 Corvette" as they all say that they have nothing to suit it. Bought a brand new A/C compreesor yesterday that fits some kind of Chevy and as soon as I said that it was actually going on an 82 Vette, he said it wouldn't fit and went to take it back off the counter! So, today I'm going into these shops with my sorry looking fuseable links in my hand and saying:
Me: "Hi mate, do you have any of these?"
Stupid: "to fit what car sir?"
Me: "Chevrolet"
Stupid: "what model?"
Me: "Caprice Classic"
Stupid: "sorry sir, not have one for Caprice".
Me: "Ok, what do you have them to suit?"
Stupid: "nothing sir, have none at all - not available in the Kingdom"

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Took me over an hour to do all that walking and talking with morons and come home with nothing! :cussing:

So, I drive off to one of the malls to pick up my wife. We stay for a coffee then try to leave BUT... The king has arrived YAY!!! The roads are blocked off, traffic being diverted bla bla bla. Took us over an hour to get home where it normally takes 10 to 15 minutes. Morons.

My only other options are to go to the actual Chevy/Dodge/Ford dealers tomorrow and see if their parts department has them. That is, of course, if the traffic isn't all messed up again with the King and every other Middle Eastern leader being here soaking up the atmosphere.

If that fails, it'll have to be www.stupid.little.things.I.can't.get.in.this.stupid.country.com
and a 2 week delay before I even see them!

So, next time you think you're having a bad day, duck out and buy yourself a fuseable link and laugh your tits off at me :surrender:
 
Last edited:
Wayne, Your bad day isn't over, wait till you try soldering that new fusible link (nichorme I think) wire:suicide:

Bullshark
 
Last edited:
Wayne, Your bad day isn't over, wait till you try soldering that new fusible link (nichorme I think) wire:suicide:

Bullshark

Yepper. I would defenitely use a crimp style connector with those. I believe 6' replaced his with W.P. plug in power fuses with success.
 
Wayne, Your bad day isn't over, wait till you try soldering that new fusible link (nichorme I think) wire:suicide:

Bullshark
Damn, didn't know that. The sad looking ones I pulled out had a copper strand core either side of the link. Might just have to use inline crimps IF I can get any...

I use to use nichrome wire to make ignitors for our band flash pots - it burns pretty well! I just pull the bristles out of a wire brush now, they work just as well and I can buy a wire brush anywhere out here.
 
Last edited:
Damn, didn't know that. The sad looking ones I pulled out had a copper strand core either side of the link. Might just have to use inline crimps IF I can get any...

I use'd to use nichrome wire to make ignitors for our band flash pots - it burns pretty well! I just pull the bristles out of a wire brush now, they work just as well and I can buy a wire brush anywhere out here.

Make sure they not the thin walled China/orient crap, and good heavy aircraft type stuff like we USED to get here stateside...

:bomb:
 
Are they the inline fuse holder that takes a standard blade fuse?

Yep. I asked Danny to fill us in. The idea here is just to provide a degree of short circuit protection. The O/L protection is downstream.
 
Well Now, took me a bit to find this thread after Bird sent it to me.
OK, what I did was replace the fuse links with a Marinr application resetable circuit breaker and rerouted the electrical feed completely.
That might not help you much. This might, Some of the fuse links you find out there might be solderable, others are not as BS said, they are Nichrome. The fuse link should not be replaced by a in line fuse, it will die constantly. It lives in a pretty hostile environment. The link is designed to protect against a dead short to ground or other massive overload. It is really just a wire about 2 sizes below the circuit rating it is protecting. So, in a pinch, if the wire is a 10, you can put in a 14 and be down the road (13 is hard to find!) .
Mine will work with 2 50 amp breakers because I have the headlights running on a seperate circuit and a bunch of other mods. One of the things I like about the breakers is they are easy to turn off.
Hope this helps
 
You could, but 300% would exceed the capacity of the wire its supposed to protect. The wire is probably only 150% max load, so a 300% fuse would let the wire burn with anything less than a dead short.
 
Top