The cycling circuit breakers will die. Friend had a problem somewhere in the running lamps of his boat. Installed one of those breakers in the circuit back at the battery. Lamps went off and back on several times before off for good. Consider circuit protection as a safety devise like smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, etc... Have but never need. Safety devises like trigger locks, safety glasses, etc.. are a separate class.
Fusible link?
- Thread starter Pawned
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Pete in NH
Well-Known Member
The thing I don't like about circuit breakers in a Direct Current circuit is that under high overload conditions like a dead short The arcing at the breaker contacts can be very intense and hot. If the contacts weld together your wiring is done for. Fuses under the same conditions will melt quickly and open the circuit in a more positive way.
TrailBeast
AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
I don't use only the breakers, but use them for mains and have fuses for separate devices.
I also realize that everything can die, but using this method for decades has never failed and left me stranded once and I drive this car hundreds of miles across the desert day or night at times.
If a breaker dies for good you can jumper to bypass it by wrapping a wire around both terminals temporarily. (If you don't have a big short of course)
Not saying everyone should do things like I do, just that the way I do them they are highly reliable and easy to solve if there ever is a problem.
Where you going to get a fusable link at 3am hundreds of miles out in the desert on a weekend?
I also understand that a lot of you guys drive other cars or trucks regularly and your Mopar doesn't get too far from home or sits at home in the garage napping a lot of the time.
Mine gets the piss driven out of it.
moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
Fusible links need to be 4 sizes smaller than the wire it protects. They shouldent be any longer than 9 inches either.
Go on evilbay. You can find them in all sorts of thicknesses.
Pico wiring offers them as well. Got my 12 gage fusible link wire in a 3 foot long piece for about $6 only needed 9" of it for my alternator fusible link i am running a 50A alternator, using 8 gage wire straight to the battery. Thats ok though. I will make spares up.
The plug in fusible link you have factory is prob avail at year one. I bought a spare from them for my 67 notchback coupe.
Btw ditch the ammeter and do the ammeter bypass, convert the ammeter to a volt gage too.
Matt
Go on evilbay. You can find them in all sorts of thicknesses.
Pico wiring offers them as well. Got my 12 gage fusible link wire in a 3 foot long piece for about $6 only needed 9" of it for my alternator fusible link i am running a 50A alternator, using 8 gage wire straight to the battery. Thats ok though. I will make spares up.
The plug in fusible link you have factory is prob avail at year one. I bought a spare from them for my 67 notchback coupe.
Btw ditch the ammeter and do the ammeter bypass, convert the ammeter to a volt gage too.
Matt
moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
Here it is. The first schematic shows the ammeter hooked up is what you currently have. The one below it showing the ammeter bypassed and its leads attached together is what you want to do.
moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
Note, on schematic A, full rated alternator current goes through the bulkhead connector and uses a small terminal at this location, it goes to the amp gage, then back out to the battery through another equally small connector at the bulkhead connector.
Marginal design when new, not good now especially with any larger alternator upgrades.
Marginal design when new, not good now especially with any larger alternator upgrades.
fstfsh
Member
I am having a charging issue on my '68 Barracuda, 340. The VR is new. The alternator shows proper voltage. But I found that the terminal in the bulkhead had melted a bit at the fusible link and was corroded. Once I cleaned up the connection, the car charged better. What about bypassing the bulkhead and that tiny brass tab entirely but keep the fusible link? Would that solve my charging issue?
67Dart273
Well-Known Member
If you are running a factory (amperage) alternator, and no big power accessories, you might be able to just fix what you have. You can buy the Packard 56 terminals from "clips and fasteners" to repair your connector
Have you read the Mad article? It explains things pretty well
http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml
Also dig around in the service manuals (MyMopar) and look for "fleet wiring" This was essentially a bulkhead bypass that KEEPS the ammeter, and was used on cars with optional 60? 65 A alternators.
It can be recognized (was it dealer installed) because the original red battery feed is abandoned, and taped up at the alternator. The new wiring is fed through separate grommets in the firewall.
One place to see this is to go to MyMopar and download the 72 shop manual, and go to page 8-167. Right at the bottom of that page shows the grommet and the cut red wire wiring.
(By the way several of the shop manuals there came from guys on this site here)
The FIRST bulkhead failures I ever saw was working on friend's and my own car back in the early 70's. My own car had problems, and I simply drilled out the (damaged, melted) bulkhead connector, and ran new wires straight through. We had no internet, then!!!
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