The Dodge Challenger Message Board

When a fusible link blows out does the car lose power to all systems; head lights, tail lights, ignition?

the main one- it comes off the starter relay- off the same bolt terminal that is feed from the battery

When a fusible link blows out does the car lose power to all systems; head lights, tail lights, ignition?

Yes, it will leave you stranded on the side of the road if it fails.

It happened on a friend's 1971 'cuda 2 years ago on our way to the Euronats. My friend was on the fast lane on the highway, overtaking a truck in moderate traffic, when we heard an explosion in the exhaust line. The engine was gone (with the power steering and brakes), and we had to get back on the right lane and on the shoulder, in front of the truck, dodging the cars merging in from the acceleration lane.
Fun ! (no warning lights either, by the way).

What happened was this : my friend had been having some electrical problems (the odd fuse blowing up, warm wires, etc) ever since he had reinstalled the wires to the AC system. The current, while not strong enough to blow the fuselink outright, had slowly weakened it to the point where a simple vibration coud break the last strands of copper inside it (not to mention the damn thing was 32 years old at the time). The ignition went out, then the air/fuel mixture exploded in the exhaust lines somewhere and blew up the mufflers (that's what we heard).

Nothing worked in the car, so I tried to shake the fuselink, which snapped as soon as I started moving it around. The copper strands were oxydized, burnt, the insulator was cracked and brittle on one end of the fuselink.

We replaced it with a piece of solid wire we had in the trunk, after checking the rest of the wiring. We stopped a few kilometers later, caught up with a friend and installed a fuseholder he had brought.

The fuseholder didn't last long (hey, that thing was made to power a CB radio, not a whole car), and we installed a piece of heavy gauge wire again after removing the AC from the circuit.

I've been trying to get a few spare fuselinks for a while, but YearOne is out of stock again on those. I guess both my Challengers will get a heavy-duty fuseholder instead.

If you want to stay with the fuselinks (it certainly looks more original), never buy just one. Buy 2 or 4 and put the spare ones in the glovebox.

Individual circuits are protected by fuses located inside the car, under the dashboard. The fuselink's only job is to prevent a big short-circuit from burning the harness under the hood. If you replace it with heavy-gauge wire, you lose that protection.

In the original wiring diagram, all power used in the car (except for starter power during cranking) goes through the fuselink, and through the amp gauge on the dashboard.

I check (read : yank) on the fuselink on my cars from time to time. After all, if I can rip it off in my garage, it's a five minute fix.

I bought a new harness from year one and it came with a fusible link, but if you need an emergency backup. Autozone carries the fusible link wire in their electrical section. It is less than five dollars a role, and thats better than sixteen dollars for a couple inches.

Sal