In line fuse

Post by **jaekl** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:29 pm

As I\'ve indicated before here on the East coast of the States, we mostly have Series III vintage. Knowing that the later cars had an inline fuse I added one to mine to include all of the lights. I\'m on the limit of the fuse but all has been well. (Kinda on the limit of the wire come to think of it, 30 amps to the headlights through maybe 16gauge.) I just took a look at the sticky wiring diagram and notice that the inline fuse that BMC added does not include the headlights.
I\'ve seen a few harness with the melted red wire in the rear branch and when I actually experienced it, the source was the number plate lamp. I suspect this area was a reoccurring problem and Morris had some complaints. Did they just add the fuse or did they improve the design too?
The lack of fuses always hit me as a bit comical. They didn\'t want the owner to be inconvienced with blown fuses that would stop the car from running or affect the lights. Now I see this approach continued after some attention was brought to area of circuit protection. \"It would just be terrrible if one would lose their lights just because of a silly fuse\" It\'s much better to have a fire a mile down the road.
Then again cars today show an inline fuse in many circuits but the fail to tell you where they are located.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:33 pm

Cars of that era just didn't have the number of fuses that modern cars have ! The 'two fuse' system was the standard. Wiring to number plate lamp(s) is certainly very vulnerable - if you want to fuse it - by all means do so!

Post by **mike.perry** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:18 pm

The number plate light wiring tends to chafe where it hangs between the boot (sorry - trunk) and the boot lid and should be shrouded in a plastic sleeve.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:48 pm

Fuse in the lights ciruit means you are at great risk of losing all lights very suddenly! Happened to me in my Rally Mini (I didn't do the wiring) very scary at high speed in a very dark forest. First job after the rally was to sort it all out so that could never happen again. If you really must fuse your lights - do individual fuses for each side, maybe even for each filament in the headlights. That way - at least half the lights will stay on!

Post by **mike.perry** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:22 pm

Reminds me of my old XJ6. The dips were on one fuse and the mainbeam on another. Dipped the lights and was in total darkness. The local plod who were coming the other way weren't too impressed. I soon rewired that setup.

Post by **morrisman1** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:38 am

thanks for bringing that up. i just wired up the ute and i have it so that the headlights (main and dip) are on the same fuse. i think i will make that fuse 30A so that only a proper direct short will blow it. the ute will be more of a sunday driver so i dont think that i will be using it in the dark much.