URGENT - fuse blown, can't trace the problem

[Benyon]

Late last night while driving in the dark thru a forest, everything shut down at once - lights & engine - upon investigation fuse no9 had blown (UK '72). In the dark I was unable to figure anything out so limped off the road and parked up.

This morning in the daylight I noted I had used the fuse as a permanent live for my stereo (for memory purposes) and had piggy-backed the power to a fuse for a pair of driving lamps. Also on the fuse were two red wires from the top, one to ignition and the other to headlight switch (not indicator stalk), and from the bottom a single wire to the headlight relay.

After looking round and checking various connections, I turned everything on and the new fuse blew again. I disconnected the driving lamps and the stereo from the fuse and ignition works fine - I have just driven 50km - but the fuse still gets too hot if I put the headlights on, I haven't left them on long enough to see if it will blow but it is too hot to touch. I have also unearthed each headlight bowl in turn to see if I can isolate the fault to one side but either side still makes the fuse too hot...

Any suggestions where I could look, I hope the above is clear and not too vague!?

 

[froggy]

what colour is the fuse?
Most fuses are rated at either 16A or 8A (red or white but i cant remember which is which) and to be honest if your running standard wattage driving lights (55w per lamp = 110watts) then i think the lights are consuming to much power for the size of the fuse.
I would re-wire the lights (via a suitable size fuse) from the incoming supply to the fuse box (direct off the battery) as from what you say you are running the lights from the wrong size of the fuse box fuse (if that makes sense).

 

[KateLovesPurple]

Definately need to rewire your driving lamps. As Froggy said, the extra load from your driving lamps (nearly 10 Amps) will kill your fuse.

If you haven't already done so, then rewire them with a fused relay as per the diagram in theis thread:

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13262&start=0

This way they will go out on dip, which they are supposed to do.

 

[Trikky2]

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