The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Went out for drive last weekend, running great after some new Magnecor leads and a NOS Lucas distributor Cap, went to give it some welly...... and died.

Questioning my mechanical prowess, managed to free wheel onto a side street and get park safely. Would spin the started and briefly fire and die. Lovely and sunny when I went out, of course the heavens opened when the car konked out..... typical.

Got towed home - thankfully not far and realised the wipers and indicators weren't working. Immediately thought it was a fuse, checked them both - both ok, refitted them bloody thing ran. Think the bottom fuse had become displaced.

I have accuspark electronic ignition, and run a 12v red coil wire on the ignition live. Obviously the coil wasn't getting power.

I want to move away from the std fuse box. I have the lights, horn and electric fan on one of Jeroen's relayed looms (which is great) so they're taken care of.

What is realistically achievable with out re-wiring the car? How many fuses is the best compromise to use and not too much of a faff to do? what are people using as an alternative to the std fuse box? What size fuses should be used?

As ever any help and guidance will be greatly appreciated!

I have a 12 way split load box fitted from car builder solutions. I separated out all the wiring from the terminals on the original fuse box. I like you have electric fan and have the lighting all relayed up separately, and electronic ignition. Works fantastic never had an issue but I did fit a new loom from auto sparks without telling them of my intentions when I rebuilt the car.

Bear in mind that you don’t want safety critical components to have their own fuse.

For example, if your brake lights had their own fuse, you’d never know that they’re not working !

My Sprint currently has 26 fuses and 12 relays plumbed into it and is done to modern standards, mostly 1 or max 2 circuits per fuse.

But to achieve this I had to completely dismantle and rebuild the loom and used most of another entire loom to have enough wire! My bulkhead mounted box now has 16 fuses instead of 2, another 6 fuse box in the relay box under the bonnet (4 headlight fuses, horn and spotlights) and another 4 on a relay board behind the dash. (These last 4 powering extras like electric windows, central locking, giant stereo etc!)

If you are not prepared for that much work (understandable) I'd guess about 6 fuses would be enough in one box. Keep it in the original spot too. Try to get a box that uses modern fuses but with spade terminals like the original for ease of connection. Then it's just a case of separating out the green wires to each fuse and looping the white ign live across each of the live tags. And PLEASE, don't run the ignition off a fused circuit, draw ignition power from the unfused side, then it CAN'T break down from a blown fuse!

A single fuse is still enough for all permanent live circuits (horn, hazard lights, interior light, cigar lighter, headlamp flash) a 20 amp fuse should do.

I'd split the other 5 as follows, 1) Wipers and washers, 15a 2) indicators and brake lights, 15a 3) heater rear window,20a 4) overdrive and reverse light, 20a 5) instruments and anything else I forgot 10a. This is pretty easy to do with the existing wiring.

I also like to move the voltage stabiliser for the instruments into the car behind the speedo. then run the tach and voltmeter off the 12v side 2nd terminal and the fuel and temp guages off the stabilised side.

Steve

That reminds me Steve…I’ve got a big box of wires for you !!

On the Spitfire when I got it I got sick of things like the headlights randomly stopping working. All down to the crappy fuse box. So I spent a winter re-wiring through a fuse/relay box I fitted next to the tunnel in the passenger footwell.
Lots and lots of work. I cut the wrapping off the loom in places to lay in new lines that were long enough to reach the new fuse box, new feed to the box for relays etc. then re-wrapped the lot.

IMHO it's paid dividends because I haven't had an electrical problem on the car for over 12 years.