re: [alfa] fun with electricals

[Ben Dorfan <ndorfan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Stacy,
Funny you mentioned this. Tonight I just finished wrestling with a short 
circuit associated with fuse #4 on my 87 spider. It was a slow current 
drain (about 860 mA) that  left me with a dead battery in 36 hours.  
Problem turned out to be associated with the courtesy lights. Makes me 
wonder if the circuitry under fuse #4 is especially problematic. On a 
serious note however, putting in a 25 amp fuse "just for fun" could have 
made your problems much worse. The wiring on a 10 amp rated circuit (in 
my book its only an 8 amp fuse) is in no way able to handle 25 amps. The 
thin wiring will heat up and melt insulation real fast. Because you blew 
the 25 amp fuse, you're probably OK for now. But look at it this way, if 
the 25 amp fuse hadn't blown so quickly, it wouldn't have blown at all. 
Instead you would have had a melted wire god-knows-where in your car. 
Sorry, don't mean to admonish or rant. Just after what I went through 
today, I cringe at the thought of an inacessable tangle of melted wires 
(to be dramatic ;) ). As for my "current status"...well never mind. 
Watch those puns.
Good Luck,

Ben
87 Spider
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