Fuses
For A Mark 3 Zephyr
By
Martin Newby
I
was putting my car back together and it was time to reinstall the wiring. Unfortunately,
the wire to the left front side light had shorted out at some time and the
plastic insulation had melted. Someone had replaced the wires from the
connectors in the engine bay to the light itself but nothing had been done
about the wiring back to the light switch. I also found the insulation on the
wire to the cigarette lighter showing signs of too much current going through
it. I unwrapped all of the loom tape and replaced both wires but I was left
with this nagging concern that this car had been built without fuses and it was
just too easy to damage the wiring, especially as the insulation was old, and
in some places, brittle.
I
decided I wanted to have some fuses in my car to protect the wiring. This is
what I ended up doing.
I
put a fuse holder with a 40 amp fuse in the main wire from the starter solenoid
to the ignition switch. I disconnected this wire from the other brown wire that
comes originally from the regulator, joined the inline fuse holder to it and
soldered a new terminal on the end to fit to the starter solenoid. In the pic
you can see this as the red wire on the starter solenoid going to the fuse
holder which is joined to the brown wire (looks black in the pic) which goes to
the ignition switch. The double brown wire actually comes from the alternator I
installed. I have used two wires (salvaged the extra one from a parts car) as
the alternator is a 65 amp unit.
It took me a while to figure out
how and where to install fuses for the rest of the wiring. I thought about
inline fuses in a number of locations but eventually I realised that the power
is distributed through either the ignition switch or the lighting switch (and
dip switch) so I decided to incorporate fuses
at these locations. In the end it was really simple, the process was to
disconnect the wires one at a time at the switches, join it to a new wire which
came down to a fuse box and then went back up to the switch to complete the
circuit. The schematic below shows how the fuse is connected in for one
terminal on one of the switches. This is repeated for all terminal connections
on all switches.
Connection Connection Connection
NewWires OrigWire OrigWire Switch
Switch
New Setup
Original Setup
Fuse
Yes there are a lot more wires
running around behind the dash but I didn’t have to cut into the wiring at all
to incorporate the fuses. All of the extra wiring and fuse boxes are also
completely removable if you want to restore the wiring to its original
(unprotected!) configuration. The picture below shows the wiring to and from
the ignition switch.
The double brown wire is the main
supply from the starter solenoid terminal and the power to the light switch.
The red wire in front of it should actually be a brown wire (didn’t have brown when
I repaired the loom) and goes to the cigarette lighter and I am going to put an
inline fuse in this wire near the cigarette lighter. On the right you can see
the two double white wires that used to be connected to terminal 2 on the
ignition switch. They now each go down to the fuse box and come back up and are
connected to the ignition switch.
The closest brown wire on the
switch is power to the radio and is already fused. The light brown wire next to
it is a new wire for reversing lights I plan to install. It goes down to the
fuse box and will then go to the reversing light switch. You can see the
white/red wire for the starter curling around to go to the fuse box. It comes
back as a white wire.
The fuse box for the ignition
switch and dip switch is shown below. At the dip switch I have done the same
thing, disconnected the wire at the switch, attached it to a wire running to
the fuse box which runs back down to the switch and is connected to the switch
terminal. I have used blue wires and there is one for high beam and one for low
beam. The wires have been wrapped with loom tape as this helps to keep
everything tidy. Note that I have positioned the fuse box where it will be
easily accessible to change out a fuse. I still need to put something on the bottom
of the fuse box to block it off. It will then be tucked up out of the way near
the top of the pedal box. Of course it would have been better to obtain the
correct colour wiring from an auto wiring supplier and I would do so if I ever
do this on another car. All wiring I used is 15 amp rated incidentally. I have
used 15 amp fuses for the blue headlight wires and the 2 main white wires on
the headlight switch. I’ll also use a 15 amp fuse in the cigarette lighter
wire. All other fuses are 10 amp. All connections incidentally are crimped and
soldered.
The fuse box for the light switch
goes just underneath the dash below the switch. The brown wire is power going
to the interior light. The 3 red wires are rh side lights, lh sidelights and
the panel lamps. I felt that no other fuses were required on this switch. The
brown power supply wire to the switch and the blue wire to the dip switch I
felt were sufficiently protected by the main 40 amp fuse at the starter
solenoid. The purple/white wires are part of the interior light circuit and are
protected by the fuse in the supply line (brown wire mentioned above).
The fuse box will be tucked up out
of the way when everything is back together
Hope this is able to help someone
Disclaimer: The advice
and guidelines given in these articles are given in good faith. The owners
and managers of the Galeforce Zephyr site will take no responsibility for
any injuries or loss sustained while carrying out the described tasks and
procedures or any consequences arising. Please read the Safety First Article
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