30 amp fuse

[Guest BarelyFit]

The brake and anitlock lights came on in my 89 Saturday morning. Luckily I was near home and had enough pressure built up to make it the rest of the way home before the pedal got hard. I immediately went to the relay box and found one of the 30A fuse legs had completely corroded away. The fuse was not blown but without the leg, there was no power to the pump motor. I cleaned the fuse receptacle and threw a new 30A fuse in. Presto. The other fuse and relays were perfectly clean with no signs of corrosion. Ahh the trials and tribulations of a twenty year old automobile.

[Guest jerryjbennett]

I had the same problem but while cleaning the fuse block

I broke off one of the legs of the brake 30amp fuse.

Put in a new fuse and it worked fine for a couple days.

Tried to clean the remanent of the juse leg but to no good

results. Talk with "Andy" (TCParts) and he mentioned the bypass

with an external fuse. Have you any experience in this area.

I'll try to get back to Andy come monday.

(jerryj37@sbcglobal.net)

[Guest BarelyFit]

Hi Jerry;

No, I am not a mechanic. I am a parts changer. I lucked out finding this malady. I usually am unable to diagnose problems. I am hoping the fix holds up. If not I will get to TC Parts.

[Guest BarelyFit]

Oh and Jerry if you do indeed get the 'fix' for this, would be so kind as to post the results. Just in case mine does not hold up.

[TwinCamFan]

I"ve seen that culprit fuse on many TC's. part of the failure theory goes to the heat that builds up in that fuse leading to the corrosion and failure. If you still have the fuse handy, check the center of it, is it distorted from the slow and constant heating? Most failed fuses I've seen are.

The fix (credit to Hemi for this one:cool:) is to trace out those wires that lead to said fuse, snip them back a few inches and replace a short segmant of wire with a good quality weathertite aftermarket fuse holder and fuse. Then the fuse and holder are not contained in the little 'heat trap' that is that box. Hemi has not had one fail again after this trick.

When the pedal went hard on my red 89 TC, I was 75+ miles from home at a car show. It was pretty easy to borrow a 30 amp fuse from the power seat control circut to get me home with working brakes;)

Alan

[Guest BarelyFit]

Yes Alan, the fuse was distorted, that is what tipped me off to the culprit. The inline fuse is a great idea. Thanks to you and Hemi.

jack

[Guest BarelyFit]

After replacing the fuse, the cycle time on a cold start has reduced dramatically! It used to take up to 15 seconds for the amber light to go off. Now It is under 5 seconds. That poor pump was starving for juice.

[TwinCamFan]

Very cool 'side effect':cool: to replacing a little bit of wire and a fuse.

Alan

[Guest jerryjbennett]

Boy are we smart ! Everybody is right !

After removing two(2) screws holding the "heat trap" fuse

box to the right fender...I saw the problem. The fuse slot

that showed one leg still attached to the "not blown" fuse

was shot. I tried to clean out the slot/replaced the 30amp fuse

NO GO. There was a burned hole under the broken leg right thru

the fuse box. SO....purchase a bypass fuse $3.00ish. Cut the two

wires into the fuse/spliced the new fuse/reconnected the battery/

SUCCESS !

Merry Xmas everyone !

Jerry J.