Common input fuse block?

[Farrar]

Has anyone replaced their stock fuse block with a common-input fuse block? If so, how did it work? Any drawbacks?

[Bitsyncmaster]

I would think you will not save much money and have a lot more problems with a non standard fuse block over the DMCH one.

[Farrar]

What kind of problems?

I'm just wondering if it would be possible to get rid of the Giant Brown Bundle. It's all hypothetical; I'm not planning on doing it unless it conveys advantages, and my stock fuse box is fine.

[Josh]

I am planning on doing this. Grabbed a fuseblock out of a caravan from the junkyard. All engine related wiring is going to be redone with the swap. I think It can be done, just alot of quality time with the body wiring diagram will ensue.

Attached is a reference picture of the fusebox. Picked it due to its size, nice layout and lots of relays.

[Bitsyncmaster]

What kind of problems?

I'm just wondering if it would be possible to get rid of the Giant Brown Bundle. It's all hypothetical; I'm not planning on doing it unless it conveys advantages, and my stock fuse box is fine.

When I installed my DMCH fuse block, I spliced all the double wires that were going to one fuse in the harness and ran one wire to each fuse pin. Your problems with be fitting and mounting a different fuse block and then keeping a new list of what fuse does what. The DMCH fuse block has the best terminals I've used. Your replacement may have poor terminals.

[Farrar]

Oh, I thought you meant electrical problems.

Most (new) fuse panels don't come with terminals, anyway -- you have to buy them and install them yourself, so it's up to you the quality of terminals you end up with.

I was just thinking, if I were someone who has a damaged fuse panel, and perhaps was going to replace the terminals anyway with something sturdier, that I might want to go with a single-input panel, and get rid of some of that brown spaghetti back there. (Other people have done it with a busbar; I think I remember reading about someone who had done so.)

Edit: Also, with a 20-position fuse block, as opposed to the stock 18-position fuse block, there would be no need to change what is on which fuse. You'd just end up with three spares instead of one.

Come on, Dave, you were the one dreaming aloud of a backlit shifter ball. Can't I dream aloud of a different fuse panel? ;)

[LordFly]

What is the advantage of swapping to a different fuse box? Aside from cleaning up the "brown spaghetti"?

[Farrar]

What is the advantage of swapping to a different fuse box? Aside from cleaning up the "brown spaghetti"?

You'd only thin the spaghetti somewhat. (A lot of those brown wires come from the main/aux relays.) I'm just wondering what difference, if any, a common input would make. It looks like it wouldn't make much difference.

It looks like there's no real advantage or disadvantage, electrically. I was just wondering aloud about it, since modern cars seem to favor the common input.

[dmc6960]

The wires coming from the main and aux relays are no longer brown. There are individual circuits going through here which are switched off those two relays. If you were going for a common input, you'd need three. Brown, White, and White-Blue. I wouldn't recommend this.

[Farrar]

So the answer to the original post is: No, no one has done it.
And the side note is: Everyone thinks it's a bad idea.

Got it. Thanks! :)

[Exolis]

I deal with Fuses/Harness/Power Distribution on daily basis. Just to clarify, you want to essentially get rid of old fuse box and put one that connects to the battery? If so, that's actually an improvement in terms of reliability. Because the DeLorean (and probably most/all 80s vehicles) do not have fuselinks at Battery terminal, and there is the IGN SW, Relays for IGN and ACC with no fuse protection. While not really a noticeable problem with DeLorean, however that is very bad for today's standards on Vehicles. Having moved the Fuse block so you essentially have a direct wire from B+ to Fuseblock significantly improves reliability.

However doing so will require quite a bit of modification to the harness and layout. So if you really are committed to doing this, then that's great. But it maybe more work then it seems. I actually planned on doing something similar in nature to this, but redoing the entire harness in the process.

Feel free to inbox me if you have any questions. (Or within thread too).

[Dangermouse]

This strikes me as something that would work best with a full re-wire of the car, perhaps for an engine swap or EV. Or even a BTTF car :eek7:

[Farrar]

Feel free to inbox me if you have any questions. (Or within thread too).

Thanks for that info, Exolis. Mostly I was just wondering aloud, since most cars have a common input these days. I know it would involve a lot of work, but for someone doing an engine swap, EFI conversion, or other major overhaul, it might add a bit more modernity to the vehicle. I myself am not planning to do the mod, but was simply wondering if anyone else had already done it.

Thanks again!

[DMC5180]

Farrar,

The PO of my car had the fuse box replaced with one out of a Volvo. It took me a while to figure out the fuse placement. NOTHING was the same and it suffered the same melting issues as the original.

20468 20469

I replaced this as soon as DMCH had replacement fuse boxes made available several years ago. It's been great ever since. I also replaced replaced a few Crispy sections of wire on the trouble prone circuit.

This is NOT the common power input style FB mentioned though.