jpitman2

Can this be done please? Want to get away from the Euro fuses to more reliable contacts.. From some pics I saw of a board having the old style holders cleaned, they seem to come off the base somehow? Sharkskin's site?
TIA
jp 83 Euro S AT 48k

Dennis Wilson

JP,

I have converted some of mine to ATO type fuses. I use a Littlefuse FHAC28P inline fuse holder with .25" female spade connectors on each end. The bottom tang of the euro fuse holders will pull off thus providing the male spades for the adaptation. My biggest problem is getting enough of the fuse holders. The local autoparts store on stocks 2 or 3 at a time with quite a long replenishment period. BTW the fuse holders are provided with protective covers and cost about $2.00 each.

Dennis

jpitman2

Thanks Dennis, I will go looking for them.....an associated company of ours is in the trade, so should be able to get some.
Cheers,
jp 83 S

jpitman2

Back - from the pics at Sharkskin it looks like the blades left when you remove the old top piece are at different heights - the bottom one is proud, but the top one is recessed. Did the things you bought fit over this case ok?
TIA,
jp

Dennis Wilson

I had to slightly compress the female connectors before they would slide on the recessed connectors. It actually feels like a tighter/better fit. I also compressed the ATO in line fuse holders a little just to insure it had good/more surface contact.

Dennis

Carl Fausett

The ceramic fuses with the copper conductors are a real problem. Patina (the green copper oxide) that forms on those fuses is an excellent insulator.

We offer glass fuses with stainless steel contacts at our website that solve a lot of intermittent electrical problems for folks.

Maintenance tip: do not allow leaves and debris to plug the drain hole in your cowling. There is a rubber flap in an oval hole at the base of the cowling on the right side of the car, just below the radiator reservoir on LHD cars - lift up the rubber flap and be sure that it is not blocked with leaves and debris behind it.

What happens is: all the water that hits the windshield and cowling drains into this chamber in front of the windscreen and it supposed to run out thru this drain. If it is plugged, the water level rises until it flows into the car just behind the glovebox where - you guessed it - the fuse panel is. This water dripping on the fuse panel is the cause of a lot of corrosion and trouble with the early cars.

Dennis Wilson

Carl,

In my 20 years of Porsche ownership I have tried copper/brass, tin and stainless fuses and they all are short lived when compared to other fuses, even in dry areas like on the 924. The real problem is the extremely small contact patch of the fuse holder. Any corrosion due to moisture or dissimilar metals will cause a degrading of current. I agree that moisture on the 928 fuses will hasten the problem and your stainless fuses will provide a longer life but the real problem is still present as long as the current fuse holders are used. This is why Porsche converted the later models to ATO fuses.

Thanks for the tip on keeping the drain line clear.

Dennis

jpitman2

Dennis, so your ATO fuses are on the ends of short leads, hanging off the board a bit? What would be nice is a back to back female blade socket, with a right angkle between them, so one side would plug onto the board, the other accept the fuse blades...will see what I can find.
thanks,
jp 83 S

Dennis Wilson

JP,

I looked at some multi fuses holders but they all had a single common power supply which wouldn't work for a lot of our fuses. The type you are describing sounds a lot neater. Please let me know if you have any luck.

Dennis

PorKen

I have it on my mental () list to move the 'big ticket' relays and fuses into the engine compartment using Hella fuse/relay blocks like these:


click pic for site - no affiliation
this is where I bought my 90MM headlamps from

Dennis Wilson

Porken,

I was looking at this type also but when I checked the WSM not all of the biggies were powered by the same source. Some came through the battery (#30) connections, some from the ignition (#15) and some from other relays. If these allow a separate input for each fuse they should work great.

Dennis

Marc Schwager

Dennis,

Do you have any pictures of what you have done? I wasn't able to find the littlefuse unit via the web.

Thanks

SharkSkin

I've considered pulling out the whole fuse panel and putting a later one in. There are some very knowledgeable people here that say the panels won't interchange, but I'm convinced that it can be done... but you have to be willing to strip the newer panel down to nothing and reconstruct the earlier schematic within the later panel one wire at a time. I'd have to look again, but I think this would also entail putting the later connectors on the existing harnesses where they connect at the bottom of the panel. One advantage is you would suddenly have LOTS of unused blade fuses in the panel. Maybe someday when I have more free time than sense I'll get around to trying it.

For now, I've found the fuses to be perfectly reliable when coated with Stabilant. It prevents the formation of the patina and it increases the contact surface area by orders of magnitude. I have a mix of glass/stainless and ceramic/copper fuses and they are all doing just fine. Of course I cleaned the bejezzus out of everything in there too.

I won't say that my car is without gremlins, but I think I can attribute the remaining gremlins to other places in the car. I think that once I clean up the contacts on the central warning system and within the pod I'll have it licked. Oh, except for the rear window defogger... I need to quit pussyfootting around, dig in and get it figured out.

I'll repeat Jim Bailey's words of wisdom here: Make it work like it was supposed to... THEN see if it really needs improving.

rixter

I can't for the life of me find this flap... I have the water issue and need to fix this.. anyone have a pic of exactly where this is???

SharkSkin

It's on the firewall just in front of the HVAC blower. Tough to see, tough to get to. If nobody has posted a pic by the time I get home & get back on the computer I'll post one.