Fuses, Wiring Relays and Busbars

[Peter Vernon]

I am going to bite the bullet and re-wire the fuse box on my TR6.

 

The quality of the glass fuses together with my 40 year old fuse box has been the source of some angst over the last couple of months and I have decided to install modern blade fuses with a number of extras to cope with the additional items I have or intend to have on the car, Kenlow, Bosch pump, 12v power supply etc.

 

When installing the fuse board it is pretty clear that the number of live and switched feeds needs to be increased as the modern fuse boards only have one output blade per fuse rather than the double output of the Lucas standard fuse box. I am not a fan of two circuits to the same fuse but I have lived with it for a long time so it cannot be too bad!.

 

The Bosch pump is on new heavy duty wiring and is fused near the pump as is the Kenlow fan and both are on relays switched from the original loom, so all good so far. To create a number of new switched live feeds I was thinking of installing a bus bar switched by a relay for the new circuits from which I can take a number of new switched live feeds for new circuits.

 

Has anyone done this before, (hopefully) or can anyone suggest an alternative? If you have some idea of a relay that would cope and give me some capacity for any other items that I may need that would be helpful.

 

I was thinking that 45amp relay would be OK to feed a 12v power supply and override fan switch with another 30amp to re wire the lights, or is that too small.

 

I have posted this in Technical Chat rather than TR6 forum as I am sure this is a shared problem across many of our cars.

 

Any advice welcome!

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

[RogerH]

Hi Peter,

Revingtons do a fuse kit at apprx £75.

 

Also look at www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk.

 

Durite do some neat blade fuse boxes with clear plastic lids

 

I use an 8 way fuse Durite box but the way it is supplied is one in/one out per fuse.

 

I have linked all the inputs together so there is one input and eight outputs. I have three of these.

One off the Ignition powered circuit. One off the dash light circuit. And a constantly powered from the battery fuse box.

 

For relays see the website above. 30amp will easily do the headlights, another 30amp for the fan.

 

The American Dan Masters does a super duper fuse/wiring system

 

Roger

[ianc]

Lee Hutton of North London Group has made a number of packaged fuse plus relay boards, and he described his efforts in TR Action a while ago. I know that a number of NLG folk have installed Lee's board, in some cases behind the glove box on a hinge.

Lee's e-mail is leeghutton@blueyonder.co.uk

Ian Cornish

[Steves_TR6]

I've used the same durite fuse boxes as Roger, also with the inputs joined and fed by a big blade fuse ( ie the 1" variety")

 

That with a set of quality relays feed all the high power stuff.

 

Steve

[Lockley210]

Hi Peter

I modified my wiring in the way you describe three years ago when I had the body off, so it was fairly easy to do with the loom out.

· Drop down panel located under the passenger foot well.

· A new supply cable taken from the starter motor directly to a remote adaptable box ( maplins) terminated on a 12 way bus bar.

· 100 amp relay switched by the ignition to fed 10 blade type fuse holder.

· Relays for pump, headlights, fan, auxiliary power to dash and also boot for charging etc

· Additional equipment also relocated here comprising, buzzer for headlights and sounder for indicators, electronic ignition module, logic controller for overdrive, headlight main beam module ( works off flasher stalk)

· New Earth post located remotely on panel

· Relays for horn and overdrive are still mounted on the inner wing, all other wiring relocated.

 

The modification has been very successful and is unobtrusive in the foot well, it is all mounted on a abs plastic board with rounded corners and hinged to enable access.

 

This was the previous post

http://www.tr-register.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/28416-auxillary-fuse-box/?p=207874

 

 

Mark

[Ian Vincent]

I have Dan Masters unit bought when the exchange rate was $2 = £1.00. It is well made and designed but would be relatively easy to reproduce if you were a competent electrical engineer - which sadly I am not. It is basically as you suggest a set of relays mounted on a board with heavy duty wiring. Take a look at the Advance Auto wire site at

 

http://www.advanceautowire.com

 

Rgds Ian

 

PS I cannot stress enough that the quality of the items Advance Auto Wire supply are top notch,they just become a bit pricey when you buy them from this side of the pond - assuming they still supply to the UK.