Power only comes on intermittently

[YakkoWarner]

I havn't been advocating (or even intending to advocate) for replacing the fusible links with anything else. Removing them is something I expect the previous owners of my truck would have done based on other things I've found, so I wanted to clarify not only their purpose but also the use case. I expect I'll be trying to figure out where they are supposed to be and if they are missing replace them.

The manufacturers obviously had a clear intention using them instead of fuses or breakers, but their reasoning was not clear to me. The whole continual draw opposed to initial surge draw does make sense once explained, I just needed someone who knew more than I did about the subject to explain it.

 

[Scott91370]

Okay the reason a fuse might or a piece of plain wire might. A fusible link will take a surge of say 50 amps and not blow but will blow pulling a continuous 30amps through it. So if you wanted to replace the fusible link with a fuse you would have to use a 50 amp fuse to accommodate for the surge rating,but 50 amps is too high for continuous as all the other wires will overheat. The fuse doesn't have the capability of a high surge rate and a lower continuous rate to pop. A fuseable link ,the jacket is fire resistant its not just regular wire,so when it burns it won't set your car on fire. When your 16 gauge wires in your dash overheat and burn because you have a 50 amp fuse instead of a 30 amp fusible link,the dash wires are not in a fireproof jacket. So now you get fire.

Thank you!! Now it makes sense. I just, for who knows why, couldn't wrap my head around it. Even though I still don't like them I get it and understand the purpose/reason they're needed.

 

[SquareRoot]

You could forego both the fuse and the fusible link and use a circuit breaker. That way when it pops, by the time your pulled over and have the hood open looking for smoke, it resets and all is good. On a serious note, I put a 150 amp fuse in the charge wire between the battery and my new Powermaster 150 amp alternator. Don't ask me why, I think my logic was to protect the alternator since it was such an expensive and beautiful piece of art. Took less than a week to fry that baby. The inline fuse and holder had completely melted into a glob of molten glue. I had good intentions, but lacked common sense. Live and learn.

 

[melueloff]

OP here, apparently my notifications weren’t working to let me know if somebody had been replying, and I hadn’t seen much for a while. So, I kind of quit looking at it. Sorry guys. Anyhow, I know Dorman does make fusible links and Napa usually carries pretty much everything Dorman but I couldn’t find anything at Napa and the guys behind the counter had absolutely no clue what the heck I was talking about. so I decided to go the wing and a prayer route and put in an in-line. So far so good. And AutoZone and O’Reilly which are about the only ones up left up in my area didn’t have a clue either. Guess I should check my other thread on my instrument cluster problem. Lol

 

[Ricko1966]

OP here, apparently my notifications weren’t working to let me know if somebody had been replying, and I hadn’t seen much for a while. So, I kind of quit looking at it. Sorry guys. Anyhow, I know Dorman does make fusible links and Napa usually carries pretty much everything Dorman but I couldn’t find anything at Napa and the guys behind the counter had absolutely no clue what the heck I was talking about. so I decided to go the wing and a prayer route and put in an in-line. So far so good. And AutoZone and O’Reilly which are about the only ones up left up in my area didn’t have a clue either. Guess I should check my other thread on my instrument cluster problem. Lol

You can buy them here just type fusible link in the search bar. I linked to the fusible link information page.

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[melueloff]

You can buy them here just type fusible link in the search bar. I linked to the fusible link information page.

Ricko1966,
Thank you! I’ll look into that. I had given up on finding a source.