The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Fuse ?

Main power comes into the cab interior from the starter terminal. On TF there is an "OPTIONAL" fuse block, but not as a main fuse, and besides the circuit should be protected before in enters the cab. I wonder why the factory over looked that?
Some one should make a nice bolt to the starter main feed fuse block. A rubbed wire and a nice short could ruin our trucks.

GM thought about it later. Their solution was the fusible link. You can install one if you like.

On the other hand...

a lot a folks getting a bit fuse crazy lately.
Not sure if this is some sort of paraphobia, but last week I saw a guy that startet fusing fuses.
He actually had a fused wire going into a fuse block.

Having said that - the only fuse my 41 had when I got it was in the light switch, and that "fuse" was a bolt.
Needless to say, that I did some slightly upgrades to the harness since than.

Frank

It is amazing we didn't see more car electric fires in the old stuff back in the day. I have seen a few though. Fusible link, naaa I like quick bolt on and quick take off, and not purchasing a stock type wire harness just to cut out the feed wire or make a mess taping on a fusible link to it. I'd just add a simple inline fuse from the starter to the feed wire, some how. When I do it someday (way down the list of to do's) I'll take pictures.

Searching the Internet it seems that the old automotive fuses were handmade and not reliable.
The Littelfuse company made several improvements.

1938:
A US patent was refused for "Little Fuse" because the words were too common.
The founder compromised by swapping the "l" and the "e" to form Littelfuse.

1940's:
Mostly worked to make devices for WW2.

1950's:
Started making fuses for television sets. They made the glass cartridge fuse we have used for decades.
A few automotive companies were using fuses at this time.

1960's
Automobile manufacturers finally got into doing a proper job of fusing.

1976
Littelfuse developed the Autofuse which was the first to make a blade-type fuse used in automobiles.

Today
The blade fuse has a built-in red LED to tell you when a fuse is blown. You no longer need to pull the fuse to see if it is blown.


SO! GM designers didn't think it necessary to fuse the antique/classic trucks we own today.
GM designers were also not thinking that one day, the cloth that covers our wiring, would rot and expose our twisted copper wires to oxidization.

Yep you don't need no stinking fuse, till you do. With out one you can have bright red glowing wire or wires and lots of heat to start something flammable on fire, just be happy not much for flammable in the old vehicles, its the other wires and the cardboard firewall insulator.

If you don't like a fusible link, something like this may work.

https://www.amazon.com/Rig-Rite-1050-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B003YZ3O3I