Fuse block replacement

[bpimm]

Working on Mac's black X I found the biggest deterrent to driving it now is the intermittent electrical, I cleaned the fuses and contacts and still had intermittent connections at the fuses so I came up with a permanent solution. A little searching and I found some Hella 8 position ATC/AGO fuse holders that have the 1/4" quick disconnect connectors out the bottom just like the factory fuse holder, A little time on the computer and CNC mill and I had a replacement for the old bosch type fuses.

Here is the fuse blocks and the panel I made from ABS plastic.

Here it is installed in the fuse holder tray.

Then all that's needed is to swap over the wires

The cable ties are to hold the extra wire from the fuses that have 2 wires attaching them in the stock fuse holder, I have a solution coming for that.

And back in the tray.

This afternoon I'll try to get it into the car instead of in my spare fuse tray.

 

[bbrown]

Very nice Job Brian

Did you (by chance) make a template of the plate you made up?
I'm betting other folks will want to do this as well.
Looks like a great replacement! Bravo! :thumbsup:

I found the ATO Fuse block on eBay if anyone's interested.

 

[Coupefan]

Question

The original fuse plate, was it a pain to detach it? Mine ( in situ) seems tightly wound, with little slack from the wire bundle behind it. Is it just because you cut every tie strap and have it sprawled out on a test bench that it looks 'easy' and pliable to work with?

 

[bpimm]

Did you (by chance) make a template of the plate you made up?
I'm betting other folks will want to do this as well.
Looks like a great replacement! Bravo! :thumbsup:

Better than that, it's CNC cut, I am thinking of a kit form with everything you need.

 

[bpimm]

The original fuse plate, was it a pain to detach it? Mine ( in situ) seems tightly wound, with little slack from the wire bundle behind it. Is it just because you cut every tie strap and have it sprawled out on a test bench that it looks 'easy' and pliable to work with?

It's much tighter in the car but if you pull the screws that hold the relay bracket and move it out of the way then it's not to bad, I'm half way through it now and had to take a break to let the muscle spasms in my back mellow out.mg:

 

[bpimm]

It's in and working.

I also did my version of the BWM on steroids, I put a bulkhead fitting through the firewall, the battery cable connects to it and on the inside the battery cable and all the wires that used to go to the battery plus all the wires from the junction block go to the stud on the inside. It also gives you a good place to pick up power inside.

Once I remake the battery and ground cables the battery will sit over to the right side of the battery tray and I want to find a washer bottle that will share the space with the battery and that will free up all that space taken up by the 6 gallon washer bottle they came with.

And yes that is plenty of battery for a 4 banger, I have been using that battery for several years with good results and it's only 15.4 Lbs.

In a few weeks I could have some kits put together if anyone would like one, Let me know.

 

[bpimm]

I found the ATO Fuse block on eBay if anyone's interested.

Here is where I sourced it
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VU9D1Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1"]500 Service Unavailable Error[/ame]

Free shipping with Prime.

It went up a buck since I bought them...

 

[geekdaddy]

That's niiiiiiiiice.
Lemme know if you end up making the CNC panel fo rsale.
This might be a good project for me next winter

 

[myronx19]

Great idea!! I love it!

A lot of the Ferrari 308 guys upgrade to what's known as the "birdman fuse box". So now we have an X1/9 equivalent!

Heck, if you get enough orders.. you can get them screen printed with fuse locations, and potentially add a fuse location or two for spare circuits.

Very nice, looks clean and solves a problem with the original fuses!!

 

[mikemo90]

fusebox

awesome job my friend!!!!
I had access to a lot of cars and used an Isuzu fuse box on my 74 to get away from the ceramic fuses and the lax holding of the tangs.
I think it came out of an impulse or trooper. have a spare one to install in black beauty.
if any body wants to experiment, I have two late model harnesses here, a 82 and 79.
mikemo:grin:

 

[bpimm]

A little more fiddling and I think I have a good solution to the ceramic fuse problem.

One of the things I needed to get sorted was the Fiat fuse holder had 2 output connections for each fuse so I got a bunch of these.

Then the fiat holder had several fuses tied together on the input side as well. Starting on the left it went single, single, double, double, double, double, quad, single, single for a total of 16 fuses. This is the layout on an 1980. I used a 1/8" endmill in a die grinder to slot between the fuses that needed to be tied together.

Then soldered 2 of the double output adapters together with 14 Gauge bus wire.

This gives us a direct replacement at least for the 1980, I don't know if other years had different fuses tied together or not.

I have 2 of these ready to go.

If you want one of these check your fuse block and see if the fuses are tied together the same way. It's easy to tell by looking at the fuse holder, here is a picture of the first 4 fuses, 2 singles and a double, you can see that the brass tabs on the bottom are tied together on the second 2.

If any other patterns are found I can make them to fit by year if necessary.

I will put these 2 in the FSW forum.

 

[lookforjoe]

Very Nice Work!

 

[Black-Tooth]

I dunno how I missed this... Great work Brian, but...

If I may...

Would not a 023414 Durite 4-way Fuse Holder or something similar fit in that same string... to have maybe 4 or 6 more circuits fused there also for other upgrades?

I really do like the retro fit aspects you did here too! A true plug and play!

Congrats!

 

[CraigT]

Hi there, I know this is a long shot because this is an old post - I am currently in the process of trying to repair a very well mutilated wiring harness at the fuses and relays, and am wondering if you have a detailed picture of the wiring and wiring groups on the fuse rack that you could share with me please as mine have all been removed and the manual isn't overly helpful. Cheers, Craig.

 

[ng_randolph]

Hi there, I know this is a long shot because this is an old post - I am currently in the process of trying to repair a very well mutilated wiring harness at the fuses and relays, and am wondering if you have a detailed picture of the wiring and wiring groups on the fuse rack that you could share with me please as mine have all been removed and the manual isn't overly helpful. Cheers, Craig.

A number of people have fitted a fuse block from a Lada (available from Ladapower), this conversion being quite similar to what you are doing. If you search these forums with "Lada" and "Fuse" as search terms you'll find several post with photos that might be useful for your conversion. I know someone posted fairly detailed instructions as well, I just can't seem to find that post.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Hi there, I know this is a long shot because this is an old post - I am currently in the process of trying to repair a very well mutilated wiring harness at the fuses and relays, and am wondering if you have a detailed picture of the wiring and wiring groups on the fuse rack that you could share with me please as mine have all been removed and the manual isn't overly helpful. Cheers, Craig.

I believe you are asking about the correct locations for all of the factory wires to the fuses, and not how to upgrade the fuse holders (as was done in this thread)? If that is right, then it will depend on the year of your X. For most of the years you can find several different wire diagrams to follow. All of the factory diagrams are terrible in my opinion but some work better than others. For example for my '79 I found a set that shows the wires for each "system" separately. That made it a little easier to trace the specific wires for that system. Although it also made it difficult to trace wires that apply to more than one diagram (lots of overlays). For the attachments to the fuse panel the diagram in the factory service manual is decent. It tells the wire color and the fuse position.