Con-fused

[Kiajon]

Hello again. I hope you are all fighting fit!

So I’ve decided to bite the bullet and upgrade my fusebox for my Spitfire 1500 after the usual list of electrical maladies! I’ve read an article shared with me on how this can be done (cheers dougbgt6) and I’ve ordered the appropriate fusebox. 
 

My question is about bussbars (apparently!) Sadly I’m a visual learner - for me pictures are the way forward - so I need some stuff I’ve read clarifying. Let’s take the wiring into my top fuse. I have three green wires on one side leading to 1 white wire on the other. If I’m going to put the three green onto separate fuses I need to make that 1 white wire have three connections. What’s the best way of doing that? Bussbars (busbars/buzz bars) are mentioned. Is that just a copper strip across the three white side connectors? If so, how do I do that? Is there a better/easier way? 
 

Please be gentle. I am a bear of little brain. If you have pictures/drawings even better!

 

Cheers

Jonathan

[dougbgt6]

Hello again Jonathan! 

Originally I had 3 fuses, one had 3 red wires coming off it, one 3 purple, and one 4 green. I got a 10 way blade fuse box, the tops of 3 fuses were connected together, the red fuses, a further 3 fuses tops were connected together, the purple fuses and finally the remaining 4 fuse tops connected together, the green fuses.

The connections of the tops of these fuses: 

A few people used a separate buss bar, but most of us wound and soldered a heavy single coil of wire around the top of each group to make the connection. I used a core from a 30 amp single core household wiring cable.

This is my box it has blades out the back and the "buss Bar" wire can be soldered at the base leaving enough room to still slide the connectors on.

 

Doug

[Kiajon]

Thanks for the response. That’s the exact fuse box I’ve ordered. The whole buss bar thing makes sense now… I think! The photo shows what I’ve got and I think it’s pretty standard. Looks like I’ll be developing my soldering skills as my electrical understanding!

Thanks again for your help! 

[dougbgt6]

Jonathan,

With that fuse box I connected 3 on the top row together and 3 on the bottom row together. Then the remaining 4, 2 top, 2 bottom, together. this seemed the neatest way to do it.

You'll have to enlarge the fuse box hole slightly, I cut an adjoining "C" shaped hole for the loom which has to be broken out of the old box. So my grommet around the loom is wedged up against the new box.  Smarter people than me drilled a separate hole slightly to the left, cut the metal between the two holes and bent the metal down. Then slipped the loom and grommet in,  bent the metal back and sealed the hole with the grommet. Very neat!

Doug

[Badwolf]

Johnathon - This was my attempt. Take from it whatever you can...

https://forum.tssc.org.uk/topic/2623-gear-stick-in-and-it-looks-like-it-works-nose-to-tail-1972-spitfire-mkiv-restoration-upgrades/page/32/

..by the way Doug is smarter than me!!!

[Kiajon]

Thanks for that Badwolf! I do like pictures! 

[dougbgt6]

Well done BW, This topic comes up regularly and I think this thread should be stored prominently, somewhere, I can never find it!

Doug

[Badwolf]

Doug - You have seen this countless times before. Just remember, my thread, page 32. Ten less than the answer to life the universe...and everything. I have even put a handy index on the first page so that I can find my own stuff!!

[dougbgt6]

BW,

Memory! I know today is Monday because the bin men came. The rest of the week I'm not so sure about, which is the reason I didn't put the bins out yesterday for collection today.

I have discussed with Uncle Pete in the past that we should have a section of "time and again" questions and answers. I'm sure there was something like that on the old site.

Doug

[Colin Lindsay]

31 minutes ago, dougbgt6 said:

I have discussed with Uncle Pete in the past that we should have a section of "time and again" questions and answers. I'm sure there was something like that on the old site.

Doug

That would make sense, given the number of queries we've had along the lines "What size of tyre / wheel / battery will fit my car" or "What oil / paint / grease do you use" and we've all tried to direct the poster to the search function rather than repeat, and of course there's thread drift which you don't really want in that type of question... he says guiltily.... 

[Adrian]

I wasn't aware of any bussbar solution so I used a wire looping from one live to the next using a spade connector with a female spur to join successive terminals. Maybe not as neat but it works!