fusible link(car dies at wot)

[djj624]

This has happened several times now. Get on the highway give it a run and the car dies. Weird thing is it only happens if i keep in the throttle, little blasts about an 1/8 mile and its fine give it a full 1/4 mile or more and she dies and blows a fuse(i ran my fusible links up to a fuse box, because once i had a problem with a cooling fan not working. Any clues on which link would cause the car to die?
Stupid me never marked which link was what cause i didn't know how to tell.

Thanks guys.

 

[djj624]

Don't know if this would cause it or not. I went under and noticed the starter cable wasn't tight, not falling off but the nut was loose enough to turn by hand.

 

[DailyDrifter]

Check your wiring, your engine may be torqueing and cause a wire to be shorting out.

 

[djj624]

that's what I'm thinking too. Just can't think which fusible link wire would shut the car down.

 

[djj624]

ttt

 

[DailyDrifter]

Go into the engine bay with the car running and start tapping, and pulling on wires.

 

[djj624]

I'm going to try that tomorrow, thanks.
I'm just wondering why it's only doing this on long wot runs and not from block to block wot runs. Motor is still torqueing.

 

[djj624]

Think i might have found the problem. One of the wires going to the fusible links was touching the heads and bare wire is exposed. Weird thing is that if i touch the bare wire with a plier or something it doesnt short out the fuse?
hmm.

 

[BlackBandit]

Think i might have found the problem. One of the wires going to the fusible links was touching the heads and bare wire is exposed. Weird thing is that if i touch the bare wire with a plier or something it doesnt short out the fuse?
hmm.

If you touch the bare wire with something metal nothing will happen unless that metal is touching something that creates a circuit, like a ground.

 

[djj624]

Right now im in such a rush im in moron mode. so for instance what would it or could it touch going down the passenger side near the header?

 

[BlackBandit]

Right now im in such a rush im in moron mode. so for instance what would it or could it touch going down the passenger side near the header?

What "it" are you refering to? If you're talking about the bare wire you found then anything metal could be the culperate. A real common cause for this type of sutuation is the positive cable going to the starter shorting on the header. Another one to look at is to make sure the big ground wire going to the block is in good shape with good contacts. A third thing to look at would be the orange ECM wire by the fusible link where it leaves the battery. Wiggle/tug on it while idling and see what happens. Another place to look is the fusable links by the starter. I know you said you ran them up to a fuse box but how did you do that? Did you solder/heat shrink the connections you made or just crimp them? Any work you've done to the electrical would be suspect and one of the first places I would look, especially if you used crimp connectors. Nothing personal, it's one of the first places I would look if I had done it and I work with electronics for a living. So basically do a visual and see if you can find anything and if you can't start it up and start pulling and wiggling wires in those areas.

 

[djj624]

Yes i did solder the wires together learned the hard way not to use crimp connectors, on my last car. Unfortunately i rubbed the bare wire melted from the header on the header itself with no luck. I'm going to try to pull on some more wires now to see what happens.

 

[djj624]

sorry for posting every 10 seconds but im running in and out of my driveway since i lost me warehouse(damn economy) any way i pull that fuse it shuts down everything all power! I also pulled on everywhere and kept tension on them for a little bit with no results. BTW the wire tats is melted from the hader goes to the starter.

 

[djj624]

Starting to think its not a wire at all but something drawing power somewhere and the longer i stay in it the more power it draws till POP goes the fuse. But know how to find out whats drawing the power?

 

[BlackBandit]

What fuse are you blowing? The best way to do it would probably bo to figure out what circuits are on it and then isolate individual circuits one at a time.

 

[djj624]

Hard to say with me not labeling what fusible link did what. Im slowly figuring out that one was for the fan, one is the taillights/headlight/interior lights/door chimes, one is a major one shutting down everything fuel pumps and all, and thats the one i keep blowing at long WOT runs. Still have to figure out the rest. I found wiring diagrams on gnttype.org but some of the diagrams are hard to read.

 

[BlackBandit]

How did you determine what size fuse to put in there?

 

[djj624]

Well i started with a low fuse everytime it popped i upped the fuse now im at 30, which i think is to high thats why i have to find out what is drawing power at wot to cause it to blow.

 

[BlackBandit]

You could put an ampmeter on it and see what it's drawing. Total up the power to all the accessories that are attached to that fuse and see what it adds up to. I bet you it's way more than 30. You shouldn't be maxing out everything all the time but you may very well need more than 30 especially if you have the fuel pump on it.

Edit: If you think about it that fuse only has to protect the wire it's in series with. All of the accessories it powers should be on there own fuse so it's not like too big of a fuse is going to hurt anything.