Fusebox woes

[Fozzie]

So, cold day, ramped the blower up to full. After a few stop/starts I realised the fan wasn't coming on. A quick look under revealed the fuse had melted. That's to say the plastic bits of the fuse, and the fusebox panel carrier had melted, as well as blowing the fuse of course. After-the-event scouring of the forums and wiki has taught me the madness of putting the blower above position 2...

thatsnotright.jpg

Interestingly 13 is the blower, but 12 is even worse, although that's for the auxiliary blower which I don't have (though I have a switch; perhaps that got turned on and shorted somewhere).

Anyhow I'd be grateful for a sanity check from anyone who has ventured behind this fusebox... I assume what I need to do now is:
1. pop off all the connectors from the back
2. remove the fuse panel
3. wire up from the old burnt out fuse holder to one of the unused ones at the bottom.
4. replace, and check the fan is still functional
5. never have the blower on position 3 again

Thoughts? Anything I've missed?

[Cafnod]

Hi Jim sorry to hear of you problems.
Battery off before anything else Jim, you know this but someone reading it might not and follow you words..............
You can run a temporary jumper wire from a used or unused outlet just to try the blower. Oh dear I often use ours in position 3................

[Cruz]

Why is it madness to put the fan speed above position 2? I do it regularly in a morning when the screen is condensed up

[ermie571]

and me.....it squeaks annoyingly in 1 and 2 as well......I know, it needs sorting...

[Cafnod]

Mine doesnt work on 2

[Fozzie]

Battery off before anything else

Oh yes Richard, don't worry. Which is why I was surprised at the spark as I was prising out the "accessory socket" (aka cigarette lighter!). Autohomes helpfully leave the leisure battery hot even with the ignition off, so that's disconnected too now.

And the madness of position 3? Just the several folk who say 3 regularly blows the fuse, so they never go above 2.

Dunno what my problem is yet.

[Cafnod]

I will remember that about the fag button, on my van its permanantly live to the main battery at mo, not ignition controlled.
I suspect that you have a seized fan bearing, either that or melted windings. I am told its a swine to do. But then again I take on big projects as you have seen.
Hope it gets sorted.

[Fozzie]

Got the fusebox out and took it apart. My, it's scary in there. Cut away the melted plastic to make 12 and 13 serviceable again, swapped the redundant blower switch for the functional one and fitted everything together. Works. So the motor is fine.

Which leaves open the question of what caused the blow, and how on earth it melted the plastic fuse carrier before blowing the fuse metal. (Isn't that what sacrificial fuses are supposed to do?)

[Cafnod]

Yep sure is, glad its back together and working though.
Wonder if they were cheapo fuses that didnt do anything, or had too soft plastic. Personally I dont like blades or ceramics, prefer glass cos they dont melt and maybe set fire to something else. Really prefer aircraft style circuit breakers. Thats what I wired the boat up with. How do I make pic iles smaller to upload Jim?

[Fozzie]

How do I make pic iles smaller to upload Jim?

You have to use some kind of graphics program. I'm a bit out of my depth here, 'cos I don't use Windoze, but if you do you probably have "Paint" (on the Accessories menu). Load the picture into that and use the Image menu (IIRC) to rescale it to, say, 15% of original size. Then save it as... (something_else.jpg). If it doesn't work blame Bill Gates, but no doubt some Microsoft guru will advise....

[Cafnod]

Thanks Jim will try tomorrow.

[CovKid]

Most useful (and free) graphics app is Irfanview - opens ANY image and you can resize easily. http://www.irfanview.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fozzie]

Most useful (and free) graphics app is Irfanview

Agreed - been a fan for years. Not everyone is happy to d/l new software though, and for them Paint, well, kind of works.