Fuse box melt prevention?

[Inf]

Thanks for the input guys, I think this weekend I will disassemble the box and solder it that way since it seems easier to remove the clips than I had at first though. If i'm going to do the job, I may as well do it right the first time!

When I first looked at the assembly, I thought it was a rivet holding it across an opening in the plastic that was too small for the clips to fit through. :stupid:

Andrew

[N5572B]

Escalon,

No, jusy becauseit is on the internetoes not mean it is FACT and, in more cases than not is incorrect. I have not looked at the fuse box in over a year and thought anything you can do to make the connections more solid would help the problem, did not think about some circuits being hot with the key and others not. I am guessing here, but is ONE side hot all the time or hot only with the key all the time? Perhaps the picture at Z car garage only reflects ONE side of the fuse box...not trying to start another tirade by you, just openig discussion. clearly, we all suffer the same problem wiht the early cars and the fuse box, so hopefully we can find solutions t othe problems...that is the reason for sites like this one, to bring the COLLECTVE knowledge together into dialogue and HELP each other.

There is a liquid "electrical tape" that I have used for many applications that works very well at elliminating corrosion on electrical components and wires that have had the insulation worn off of them...I forget the brand but I tink I picked it up at ACE hardware but know that NAPA carries it also. It is really trick and may keep corrosion from reapearing after thoroughly cleaning the connectins and tighening or soldering them. They make really fine solder for electronic components that melts with less volume of heat so as not to destroy circuit boards that might work well after cleaning the terminals. Clean 'em, tighten 'em up, solder them and coat them with clear plasticote or the liquid electrical tape should help the problen if not elliminate it all together.

Cheers,

Dave

71 240

[EScanlon]

Actually the liquid Electrical Tape is good stuff. I used Plasti Kote in the spray can cause I had it on hand.

With regards to the fuse box. The drawing he has matches the one in the Sports Z Magazine, but those don't match Inf's. The one in Zparts could be any of them, since you never see the back.

The KEY thing here is that the "GOOD" solution that was posted at ZGarage should have said that it was only good for X year Fuse Boxes. I'm sorry I don't know WHICH year, but I know it isn't the 70-71 it might be a later year, but I don't know. Therein lies why I jumped on your reply. Inf's pic clearly showed that adding that wire to join all the wires on one side would shunt two circuits that were separate AT the fuse box.

In re-reading the article in Sports Z, the author also advocates tightening the crimps at the connections before soldering and sealing. I did that by using a punch and anvil.

Anyhow, hope he gets his done well.

2¢

[Inf]

Wow, that film on the back contacts was MUCH more resilient than I had thought!

After some difficulty, I managed to remove one of the clips from the block and sanded the back off thoroughly to get a good bond with the solder, but it would not stick! The solder rolled off, or just beaded up on the surface and wouldn't make a good connection. I managed to get the joint to hold a large chunk of solder between the brass strip and the rivet, but I still wasn't very confident about the connection there (did not look quite as solid as when I was soldering onto circuit boards, more like it was just 'sitting on top' of the connection), since I (apparently) had not done a thorough enough job sanding.

When trying to remove another clip for a second shot, it was very difficult to remove, and I felt I was doing a lot of damage to the plastic and nowhere close to actually getting it out, so I decided against going through and soldering all the connections, not to mention some issues with the irons themselves (Iron I had from before was pretty old and had a lot of play in the shaft, so I got a new one from radio shack which wouldn't even get hot enough to melt the solder!).

I sanded the connections where suitable, and put it into my car without much trouble and it seems to be working fine. The engine, however, will not run properly now : see my thread in the "Help Me!" forum for info on that.

Thanks for the input on this issue guys, maybe I will mess with it again this summer when I pull the interior out for some POR-15 application.

Andrew