electrical; wiring/fuses
 

I'm in the process of wiring up my 65 Mustang Vintage Race Car,I have most of the wiring figured out,except one "little" detail..........

I bought a switch panel,it has an ignition switch,stater button and two acces. switches,I assumed they had fuses but do not...........I want to put fuses in the lines for the ignition/2 acces. switches,where do I put them,on the hot going into the switch or on the hot wire coming out/after the switch?????????? I am planning to use the new-style flat fuses and splice them in-line where ever they need to be..........

Wiring is going something like this,positive from battery to cut-off,from cut-off,one large hot going to the switch panel,branching to all three switches,ignition switch will go to the MSD box,one acces. will go to the electric fan,other acces. right now will not be used,then from the starter button to the starter selonoid,BTW,the switch panel is pre-wire but has NO fuses...........the hot for the brake lights will go directly to the hot coming off the cut-off so when ever the cut-off switch is ON,the brake lights will work........

O-K electrical gurus,what do I do and why?????????????

Thanks;

David

fuses
 

DAVID
THE ADVANTAGE OF INSTALLING A FUSE ON THE WIRES LEADING TO THE SWITCH IS THAT MORE OF THE CIRCUIT IS PROTECTED.
IF THE SWITCH PROVIDES POWER TO MORE THAN CIRCUIT, I WOULD FUSE EACH ONE SEPARATELY. THEN IF A FUSE BLOWS, YOU WILL KNOW WHICH CIRCUIT IT POWERS.

USE A RELAY FOR THE FAN AND USE THE SWITCH FOR THE "CONTROL" SIDE OF THE RELAY.

I WORKED FOR A FORD DEALER FOR THIRTY SIX YEARS AND WILL BE HAPPY TO HELP YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE WHEN I CAN. MY NUMBER IS 318-343-7158 IF YOU NEED TO CALL.

GOOD LUCK RONALD

Ron;

Thanks for the info,I do have a relay for the electric fan and have the same set-up in my street 65 Fastback........... I was/am planning to fuse each switch seperately,just needed to know how to do it,I guess putting the fuse before the switch also would help prevent from burning out the switch..........right now I will have only the MSD box on the ignition switch and one acces. switch will go to the relay for the electric fan..........I'm running a mechanical fuel pump and have no other electrical things to wire up,trying to keep this as simple as possible.............

I'm going to "split" the hot coming in to the switch panel and fuse each of the two leads before the switches with an in-line fuse,any recomendations for the fuse itself for the MSD box and a 17" diameter fan????? Not sure of the MSD recomendation,but I could check with the fan maker to see what they recomend as the proper size fuse........

Thanks again and do not be surprised if you get a call in a week or two when the battery gets hooked up,hopefully NO smoke or blown fuses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

Personally what I'd do is branch off of the main hot (like you were suggesting) with a separate fuse for each switch (like Ron suggested). This way you could select the proper size fuse for each branch, remembering that the fuse protects the wire, not anything else.

What gauge of wire are you using as this will determine the size of fuse you'll want to use.

DAVID
CALL ANYTIME. I AM RETIRED AND USUSLLY HOME. I ALMOST NEVER GO TO BED BEFORE 11:30 PM
RON