Tech - How to install an auxiliary fuse box for less than $20

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Ok, so I've owned my cruiser for almost exactly 2 years and I've added a few electrical accesories during that time, including the following:

Slee headlight harness ------- 2 relays No fuses(was unhappy about this)
Hella 4000's ------------------- 1 relay 1 fuse
4 roof rack lights ------------- 1 relay 1 fuse
4 rock llights ------------------ 1 relay 1 fuse

All of that amounted to a rats nest of wires, relays, and fuse holders(see pics below). Since these accesories were all added piece-meal they were not combined in any sort of organized manner. This eventually led to water shorting out the relay for my Hella 4000's and causing them to be on constantly until I pulled the relay.

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I spent my evenings for the better part of a week searching for aux. fuse/relay panels before finally coming to the conclusion that what I wanted was too expensive($60-100) and what I could afford was crap. That's when I started looking at fuse panels from other vehicles.

What I came up with is the fuse/relay panel from a Jeep Cherokee(I know I know, but it really fits the bill quite well). Here's what it has for capacities

7 relays
10 Maxi fuses
6 ATC fuses

I went to the local junkyard and found a mid-90's Cherokee w/ the fuse box all intact. I cut the main harness about 3" outside the box and took it to the counter. $10 later I had my aux fuse box, complete w/ pigtails, relays, and fuses.

So I dismantled the entire fuse box using a terminal pick(i.e. removed all of the guts from the fuse box leaving it a plastic shell). From there, using shrink-tubed butt connectors I rewired the entire fuse box to the existing harnesses in the truck. This was the most time consuming part and took about 6 hours total. After all was said and done, this is what it looks like. I still have 2 extra relay slots, and enough room for 12 more fused circuits.

Here's how I wired it:

I wired the high beams and low beams to seperate relays, but ran them off the same fuse. The other relays all have their own seperate fuses.

I grounded all the relays through a common ground wire to the ground point on the body to the right of the battery.

The accessories are each grounded individually through their original harness ground points.

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I still need to make a mounting bracket for the fuse box as it's currently free floating although it doesn't really have any room to move.

I also plan to turn the battery 90* and run the fuse box along side.

I also "stubbed out" an 8 gauge wire on it's own fused circuit to run to the interior for a smaller fuse box I intend to install under the shifter console.

Feel free to ask any questions. Sorry I didn't take any pics "in process" I kinda got carried away and didn't think about it till I was done.

Ary

[Erratic]

That's really nice! Nice work. In a buildup of an older VW I had I did a similar action with a saab fuse box. If I had found that one I'd have used it instead since it's lower profile than the one I have. I bet we'll see a lot more of that popping up now that you've posted it!

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I actually looked for the Saab box after reading references to it on PBB, but wanted fused relays and was under the impression the Saab box did not have fuses for each circuit. Also, Saab's are not very common out here in rural VA

[cruiser larry]

Good write up thanks for the info.

[sseaman]

looks good,and great explanation

[photogod]

That sure looks better than the previous rats nest! Much safer as well.

[kup99]

well done...I agree with looking WAY safer..

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Thanks guys.

Part of the goal was indeed to make it safer. I still need to go in there and tidy up all the wires running around and put them in a loom, but the hard part is done.

I robbed the bracket for this thing out of the Jeep, so once I pick up my new battery next week, I will reorient everything and mount this sucker permanently.

BTW, I thought I would mention that the 10 Maxi fuses get their power from a common bus that is connected directly to the positive terminal of the battery. From there you must connect a jumper from the other side of the fuse to the relay terminals. For the ATC fuses you must also connect a jumper. There were a few of the existing wires from the Jeep wiring that made this rather easy.

Oh, one more thing. That big ass black cable below the fuse box is not connected to anything. I ran it from the batt. box all the way to the rear cargo area with the intentions of putting a fuse box back there to run my inverter and amps off of, but never got around to it. I may do another of these bad boys in the rear cargo area for that purpose.

[sandcruiser]

Arya, good job.
I've got the same box in my 88 hj60.

[sandcruiser]

Arya

One question for you: did you find terminals that will stay in position for the various fuses/relays?

I've replaced a few but the terminals tend to get pushed out the bottom. I'd like to find some replacement terminals that have the little clip in place so that they will stay where I put them. Looked at waytechwire.com and see that they've got some stuff that could work- but I dont' want to spend $20 on a few hundred terminals (darn minimum orders) if they aren't the right thing.

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I ended up modifying some terminals I pulled out of other relay holders since I didn't have enough to begin with. If you examine the plastic bits of the box you will be able to see what retains the terminals in the slots and just accomodate those clips in your new terminals.

Also there are the colored plastic inserts(yellow and red) that push into slots to ensure the terminals stay in place.

Lastly, I made sure that the terminals stayed in place as I stuck the fuses and relays in by holding the terminals from behind.

Ary

[sandcruiser]

finally found a source for what I think are the right terminals...

ok, let me rephrase that: finally saw some pictures online at www.littlefuse.com
big pdf file: http://www.littlefuse.com/data/en/Pr...TB101_ORTB.pdf
search for terminals. there there are!

I'm still trying to find someone who will actually sell me the darn things. I'll keep everyone posted if I do find a vendor. If anybody out there has a source for not-huge quantities of electrical parts, lemme know.

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Just go to the junkyard and pull some, shouldn't take but 10-15 minutes. That's what I plan to do if I ever come up short in the future.

Ary

[sandcruiser]

don't love the idea of using used terminals... that's why I'm looking to replace the ones I've got. As of now, mostly I just spliced pigtails. But Heep didn't use very heavy guage wiring on a lot of the stuff, and I'd like to just start over and have it go where I want, without a bunch of funky colored splices everywhere. Not a major priority, but it would be better to do it right.

So far, my terminal hunt is coming up empty anyway...
One of the folks I talked to suggested that Napa probably has the terminals in their computer... which is interesting. Probably even more interesting to those of you who have a Napa within 3,000 miles of your home

[ginericLC]

www.partsexpress.com and www.12voltguy.com are some sources I've been looking at for wiring products. Maybe you can find what you are looking at at one of those places? I'm going to go with the 12 volt guy dual battery kit in my 80.