Fusible Link?

[Jim Garry]

Hi Everyone,

Early this season on my FF1600 Kent I had something loosen up in my engine compartment and create a short between the chassis and a hot wire. Damaged the battery and all the connections at the master switch. So I was wondering if anyone uses a fusible link in their Kent electrical system.

Thanks for any information/advice.

[Roland V. Johnson]

Nope

[Garey Guzman]

In the thread a little while ago about wiring an AMB transponder, the experts seemed unanimous that they did not use fuses.

[Purple Frog]

I never used a fuse. Not saying it can't be done, just adds more points of failure. Also some of those wires would need one heck of a big fuse.
Look at your daily driver. Most do not have fuses in between the battery and the starter, just a hefty cable.

If you ever get to see a video inside the engine compartment at speed, it can be surprising how much loose stuff moves around at 1+ Gs.

zip-ties... and lots of them.

[Steve Davis]

A 'fuseable link' is just a piece of WIRE that BURNS... instead of a FUSE that 'blows out'. The fuseable link is generally WAY WAY more difficult to replace - often involving HOURS of removing and tearing out wires ..only to replace them again. Generally speaking, fuseable links are used in situations where there MIGHT be a temporary 'short' that might blow a FUSE... but won't 'blow' a fuseable link.. so the vehicle keeps working .. unless the temporary situation happens again.. at which point (after a few times), the link becomes unusable and has to be replaced.

A WIRE .. IS a fuseable link... of sorts. If there is no fuse to blow, the WIRE itself becomes a fuseable link.. and will burn up .. according to the severity of the short .. and the SIZE of the wire.

For a properly built RACE CAR (IMHO), neither fuseable links or fuses have a "proper place". There is too much going on in a racecar .. .mostly during MAINTENANCE, but hopefully NOT on the racetrack. Fuses, if used, get blown during routine maintenance (when the MASTER SWITCH gets left on) and a fuse might get blown when you don't realize it. If you just 'TOUCH' a wire to the wrong place, it will spark and you SEE IT.. ,but go on... off times a fused circuit would just BLOW the fuse and NOT spark and you wouldn't realize it ... until something didn't work... Like AFTER you are all belted in .. and ready to CRANK THE CAR to go to grid .. and it WON'T crank.
Steve, FV80

[patman]

I use aircraft style circuit breakers in all my race cars. Can be reset while driving, but still will keep your car from potentially burning up if a hot wire gets caught in something. Obviously more $$ than a fuse, but well worth it imo