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I may, or may not have an issue. I am not skilled with electronics, so I'm asking here.

Oh Digger???

If you look at the photo, you will see a red heavy-gauge wire at the bottom, going to the right, into a large fuse. The wire on the other side of that fuse leads to the positive terminal on the battery.

The clips, at the fuse blades are getting hot, not too hot to touch, but very hot. No other segment of the line appears to be hot at all.

That particular wire powers the AC blowers in the back. Is the heat an issue or just a function of the energy going from the heavy gauge wire to the relatively thin fuse blades?

Thank you, Digger. I hate to put my ignorance on such public display, but I suspect I am not the only one. You connect one of these thick ground wires to each of the two fenders, the firewall, the core support (what is that?) and the engine block joining them all to the brass junction and running a shorter wire to the battery. Where should the brass junction box be mounted (other than close to the battery)? Where on the battery do you attach the shorter wire? Are the kits with blue wires better than the kits with red wires, or is it a matter of color preference/coordination If you use half of the kit on one car and there is only one junction box, how do you connect all the wires together on the second vehicle? All elementary questions, but that is my level of understanding on this topic. It seems simple, but the application is daunting to me. Thanks again.

A grounding kit is simply a box of about 8 - 12 thick ground wires of different lengths. It comes with a brass junction to connect all of the wires to and one shorter wire to run directly to the battery.

Basically you will want to run a wire to each fender, the firewall, the core support and the block. The rest of the kit can be used on a second car.

Okay, Digger, for those of us who are not mechanically (or electronically) inclined: Which grounding kit is best for a Lincoln? and How do you install one if you get the right one? I understand the principle and recognize how many problems develop because of poor grounding, but I do not have the know-how to solve it myself. Your expertise and advice are greatly appreciated. I may still have to ask my electronics shop to make the change, but I want to know more before going there.

Great suggestions, Thanks!

All my cars will get the once-over for these issues.

I'm going to do the ground kit, and in fact I'm going to inspect and upgrade the ground connections on all the major systems (especially big draw items like the blowers) . The car already has what looks like a brass device behind the right front kick panels that has 7 different attachments for grounds that are currently connected.

I'll also seal that particular fuse in a weather-resistant fixture as suggested.
Frugality was right about the corroded wire; the green-flaky rust went about 3 inches down the red wire. The wires going from the fuse to the battery were ok.

Once I make the modifications, I'll try a 15 or 20 amp fuse. If it does not blow, that well serve as an indication that the mods worked.

Thanks again.

Here is my take on this... the problem lies in the ground circuit. You can have the largest power wire made going to something (and yours looks like it has been upgraded) but if the ground wire isn't large enough it will cause the system too much resistance, resulting in fried fuses. I suggest going to the blower motors themselves and see what they have for grounding wires, possibly upgrade them to a larger wire.

Also, body grounds can hurt a system over time because of rust, corrosion and such. I always say they you can't have too many grounds, this is why I always purchase a grounding kit on Ebay and install them on all of my cars, it helps the idle be smoother, lights to be brighter and less resistance it all systems.

If the wire/fuse worked before, it's NOT the wire guage or the amp rating of fuse (if unsure, replace original fuse with one that has LESS amp's, if something is wrong with motor's, fuse will definatly blow or your motor's will burn up/leaving smoke in air (had that happen once, man that smell stink's). Your problem can be summed up in one word: CORROSION Although you may have cleaned the clips with a wire brush, corrosion WILL travel up wire under insulation, making it unable to see simply by looking at it. After many hundred's of thousand's of miles, or poor installation, the insulation of wires where they are terminated weaken, especially under hood from many miles of heat/outdoor element's. This weak point exposes wire to environment. The slightest exposed part of wire is an excellent breeding point for corrosion. And corrosion is like rust, will travel down wire under insulation. So what's happening is the electrical current is fighting harder to travel, thus, create's heat. To fix, cut fuse holder where wire's meet, goto auto part store, try to match old one with new universal weatherproof fuse holder, like the one on there now. Next, take the wires that were connected to old fuse holder and cut about 2 inches off of wires. After cutting, look at wires under insulation, if you seen any green colored tint on wire, cut more off until you see a shiny copper or steel color. Connect wires to fuse holder wires using only weatherproof butt connector's. (if you don't mind spending a couple of buck's more, buy shrink tubing at any hardware/auto store and place tubing around wire BEFORE connecting to butt connector, after conncecting wire to butt connector, slide shrink tubing over conneector to cover entire plastic, take a lighter and carefully light tubing moving hand in a left/right motion under tubing while lighter is lit. Tubing will start to shrink around connector creating a water/moisture proof connection). Replace fuse with same amp rating as old (original) one. That should fix your problem, but not guaranteed, still wonder what reason why someone would wire a blower motor directly to battery like that, but if it worked, must work right?

How about you just upgrade a fuse to a bigger fuse. When I say bigger I dont mean 15 to 30. I mean get a different housing and new fuse like for example when you hook up a stereo system type of fuse.

quote:

Originally posted by J Paul White:
Hmmmmm. I would get those blower motors or more specifically the blower motor circuit checked out. Something caused the first fuse to blow, just have to figure out what it is. Something is causing the blower motors to work too hard causing the fuse to blow orrrrrr there could be a short somewhere causing the circuit to overheat and blow the fuse. Definitely want to get it checked though, its hot as H-E-L-L this week and the A/C is definitely going to be used on any runs.

Oh wait I see you said it corroded off. Didnt blow. Hmmmmmmmmm. Are you sure it was corrosion and not the fuse blowing that caused the fuse to go? Does it look melted at ALL or just broken?

Hmmmmm. I would get those blower motors or more specifically the blower motor circuit checked out. Something caused the first fuse to blow, just have to figure out what it is. Something is causing the blower motors to work too hard causing the fuse to blow orrrrrr there could be a short somewhere causing the circuit to overheat and blow the fuse. Definitely want to get it checked though, its hot as H-E-L-L this week and the A/C is definitely going to be used on any runs.

Yes, that is a 120, not a sedan, and what brought it to my attention was a failure.

The job is definitely aftermarket, not factory, and I doubt ECB did it either. That is how the car was when I bought it, and it has worked perfectly up untill now. (Knock wood)

The blowers went out, and I traced the issue to the fuse, which had not blown, but rather had corroded off where the blade meets the fuse body. That portion of the fuse blade was exposed to the elements.

It was also clear that the clips were highly corroded; no doubt causing a lot of small arcs and sparks as contact was constantly made and broken as the car vibrated. A wire brush fixed that.

It was when I replaced the fuse, a 40 amp fuse, that I quickly noted the heat. I upped it to a 60 amp fuse and there was a marked improvement, but still some heat at the fuse-wire junction.

Sal, was there something that brought your attention to this fuse or did you come across it while doing something else? Any symptoms?

Thats for your 120 right? Not a regular sedan

Sal,
Im no expert but i think this is what's going on. The reason the fuse only is getting hot is most likely because the fuse is a smaller gauge than the wire it is connected to. And this is by design, if the fuse gets hot to a certain point itll melt and break the circuit before something more expensive breaks (Like a connection somewhere inside the blower motors)

Now..the main questions is...is the fuse getting hot because it is rated too small for that circuit, or is there something in the blower motor that could cause it to overheat? Like if something was causing the motor to have to expend more energy to turn, like if a stick was stuck in it somewhere (Just as an example) or the bearings are wearing out (Should make a squealing noise when you turn it on)

Im not sure which, though by the looks of that install it may be aftermarket and the installer may not have used the right fuse. How long has it been getting hot and have you ever made any repairs to it before?

Hope this helps...at any rate I would keep an extra fuse handy cause if it gets too hot itll blow/melt...