BEWARE of inline fuses...😠

[HIGHWAY BY THE SEA]

Today when I was working on my 81 Stepside that just got out of the paint shop I had to reach under the dash to replace a bulb in the gauge pod. When I did this, I must have slipped a wire insulating piece of electrical tape off the power wire on the radio and it grounded. The next thing I knew my radio was smoking all over the place and I had to go under the hood and disconnect the battery. Unbelievably my factory original DELCO AM/FM radio still works, but I am worried that the wires in it may be FRIED. What I cannot understand is that grounded power wire has an inline fuse in it and this fuse did not blow for some reason. If the wires were cooking the fuse should have popped but it did not. Be very careful with inline fuses folks. Today I learned my lesson.

[jjzepplin]

How many amps was the fuse? Should be no more than about 3Amps. It also makes a difference if it grounded in front of the fuse where the fuse would not have been effective. In this case the radio would not have been affected by the ground as the wire would have short circuited between the fuse box and the ground point. Moral of the story= put your inline fuse closer to the fuse box and always use either shrink tube on soldered connections or liquid electrical tape. NEVER EVER use adhesive electrical tape on your truck. Or much of anything anymore. I only use it on frayed cable ends or temporary situations. I always use liquid tape over it though. Never unravels and looks better too. It works well on the printed circuits on the back of your dash cluster as well. Just solder broken connection and cover in liquid tape. End Ramble.

[71swb4x4]

Just a future tip for you, I put heat shrink on all my connections, even crimp connectors.

A fuse is going to do the same thing whether it's inline or in a fuse box. I don't think it's an issue with an inline fuse. I agree with where jj is going, probably an improperly sized fuse.

[jjzepplin]

I use crimp connectors too but I never crimp them. I solder them up. I first remove the standard plastic junk thing that never works where you would be crimping, Then slide up your shrink tube, Solder the connector, Slide the shrink tube on and bam. Nice looking almost stock look and will never come apart.

[chrismoore701]

Originally Posted by jjzepplin

I use crimp connectors too but I never crimp them. I solder them up. I first remove the standard plastic junk thing that never works where you would be crimping, Then slide up your shrink tube, Solder the connector, Slide the shrink tube on and bam. Nice looking almost stock look and will never come apart.

I likes. I just installed a painless kit in my truck and wish I would have done that

[HIGHWAY BY THE SEA]

Perhaps the name of the store it should have been "Beware of electrical tape". I installed the radio about seven years ago in the truck. When I had it painted the man who did the paint job took it out and then put it back in. I guess the tape must have come loose then and neither of us knew about it. I think I'm going to follow some of the good advice that was given me on here.