Instrument Panel 2A Glass Fuse

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JTG

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The instrumental cluster on my 68 Barracuda takes a 2A glass fuse. This fuse has blown here and there over the years, gauges still work just don't light up for night driving. I have 6 Auto Meter gauges running off the same line in conjunction with the factory gauges, the question is? should I put a 3A or 4A or 5A fuse instead of 2A because of more load being on this line due to these additional gauges. Thanks
 
Pull one bulb, look them up. You should be able to find bulb wattage or amperage. What are you running in the OEM cluster? Some folks wrongly put stuff like 194's in there, way to big, wattage wise. Add them up

The danger is, you may be overloading the dash dimmer control.

Look up in the service manual electrical section, some point before you get to the diagrams Standby.................

The book shows factory inst lamps are 158. Amazon claims 3.36watts. 194 lamps are just under 3.8W. Take 3.36 divided by 12 equals .28 amps

3.8 divided by 12 equals .32. That's of course .32 minus .28 equals .04 per bulb. Multiply that by the number of cluster lamps, and it does add up. Because of the added current from the added gauges, you will have to run the dimmer control further to the left for less resistance (to the left is brighter) and so this means more wattage is being dissipated over the length of the now much shorter resistor/ dimmer.

Another thing that causes nuisance fuse failing is poor connections at the fuse clips, and the rivet where the fuse clip is fastened to the terminal underneath, and by the wire connections underneath. A poor connection in any of those places builds heat.

My old 62 Landcruiser, when I got it, had the factor fuse panel, and it was a problem until I finally cut it out of there and replaced it. Ended up rewiring that thing at some point
 
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Adding a jumper at/on the headlight switch takes that dimmer rheostat out if the game. Might be better than pushing more power through its scrub a tiny wire contact. Me, I would have the added gauges illumination on a separate line with inline fuse anyway. (6 gauges,,, I won't ask).
Good luck
 
Thanks 67Dart273 for your very knowledgeable insight much appreciated, after reading your response it makes me feel like I'm dumber than a stump, LOL.
 
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