Brown wire surgery mistake

[barnesjtsl]

I did the Brown wire fix the other day. Worked great. Headlights brighter and wipers running much better.

I noticed after I did it that I had been mistaken and used 12 gauge wire instead of 10. I'm mr. paranoid when it comes to electriclal so I added a 25 amp fuse just before the battery and another one just before the brown wire at the ignition on my new wire.

I have not had any problems so far. What are the possible problems with using the 12 gauge wire?

Thanks,

barnesjtsl

[mbouse]

1. those fuses are useless. the existing brown wire is straight (after a fashion) from the battery, no fuse in between. adding a fuse will not keep you protected from anything.

2. as long as your original wire is still intact, using a 12 gauge wire won't be a problem. if the original wire completely fails, your 12 gauge wire will be inadequate for the maximum load it may be expected to carry.

[majicwrench]

Putting a fuse in any wire coming from the battery is a good idea, I'm not sure what is meant by "useless". If the wire is carrying current, it should be fused. That way if something gets pinched/damaged/shorted on down the line, the fuse blows instead of turning everything into a melted mass.

Not sure how much current that "brown wire" surgery carries, but if it is working fine, methinks you done good. 12gauge wire can carry a lot of current.
Keith

[mbouse]

by useless, i mean that the wire it is piggy backing is hot, unswitched and unfused. adding a fuse to a piggy-backed wire presents zero protection. if the piggy-backed wire is compromised, no fuse will protect the circuits as the circuits are still fed by the original brown wire.

[racydave]

I gonna give a educated guess on the wire, we have a chart at work, but I run new circuts daily on cop cars... six feet of 12 gauge should handle 25 to 30 amps easy. You should'nt be using near that much. You oughta be in great shape. Fuses only protect something downstream of the fuse. That is why manafactueers recomend placing them as close to the battery as possible.

[racydave]

Fuses should be rated at 120%. I use an inductive amp meter, but have heard of cheaper ones that can plug into a fuse location.

[barnesjtsl]

Thanks everyone for the quick replys.

The fuses may be useless, but for around $5 to relieve any paranoia is cheep in my mind.

barnesjtsl

[majicwrench]

I disagree about useless, the fuse is still protecting the added wire. Should that wire get pinched, downstream of the fuse, the fuse will blow and prevent a melted mass IF ONLY IN THIS WIRE.
By NOT fusing the wire, you have just basicly doubled the available current to that circuit, and if a short occurs, now you REALLY have a lot of current melting everything into a big mass of molten mess.

Come to think of it, wouldn't be a bad idea to fuse the original brown wire....
Keith

[racydave]

The brown wire is the ignition wire. Its used to input the relay which then switches the new source and distributes it. No double burn thing. It is difficult at best to fuse wires at the starter for new circuts, and a bad environment also. That is why I ran a new circut fused at the battery.