[Healeys] New Classic Technologies Fuse Box

[Gil Rockwell]

Josef,

I think the point is when you have more than one fuse, a problem is isolated to the smaller circuit with its own fuse rather than taking out a large portion of the electrical system in the car.  Losing just one smaller circuit rather than disabling a major portion of the car can make  the difference between getting back home or being completely disabled alongside the road.  I always vote for having more fuse circuits when I am re-wiring any car.  I've done many over the years and have never regretted doing so.  Keeping a few extra fuses in the storage area is not a big deal.  Also, having a fuse sized to the smaller circuit's task means that a fault of a part will be detected by a more appropriately sized fuse rather than a large fuse that might not blow when a smaller part fails internally and causes it to smoke or catch fire before the large fuse finally fails.  This is when the wring begins to take the abuse and overheat due to the large fuse not failing in time.  My 61 BT7 has the original fuse setup and a new wiring harness installed by the previous owner, but if it ever fails, I will certainly take advantage of a new fuse distribution box like the one being discussed and I will have the peace of mind knowing that a single failure will not take out the entire car.   I believe any automotive engineer will agree with me, but you are entitled to your opinion based on keeping a Healey original.

Gil
61 BT7

-----Original Message-----
From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of josef-eckert at t-online.de
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2015 1:32 AM
To: Oudesluys; Healeys, Forum
Subject: [Healeys] New Classic Technologies Fuse Box

Kees,
Sorry, but you wrote switches are old and have worn a fair bit. 

That may be right, but when you have a look to the internals of an original Austin-Healey ignition switch or light switch, the contact design and switching abilities are far superior to anycar box relay you get in today´s market. So they are more than capable to cope with the high currents. Its different with i.e. MG B switches used in the 70s.

You also wrote:
Also having only two large fuses causes a lot of damage when something goes wrong and there is a short.

I see you are not much in electrics. It doesn´t matter if you have 2 or 30 fuses in your car. When there is a short and the line is fused, via one of the 2 or 30 fuses, the fuse blows and no damage is caused. So when you fuse each line seperately there is no improvement. Critical are those connections which are not fused at all. There I see an improvement with additional fuses. But there are only two or three additional fuses needed, when you want to savegard this.
The original electrical system of my original Healeys are more reliable as any of my modern cars. To my opinion many fuses do not help, the cause even more trouble. 

Josef Eckert
Germany




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