What can be the purpose of the "fusible links" ?

[harpon]

Aren't the fussy-ble links just sort of a worthless oxymoron?

They're called "fusible" links- not "FUSED links"

for an obvious reason: THEY HAVE NO FUSES!

there they sit, exposed to whatever gets under the hood-

six connectors at the bottom of three verticallyinclined wires-

just waiting to get corroded up and fail, and more likely to short out a harness with them than not
I'm inclined to think

Mine definitely seem to be a weak link even f they don't appear too bad-

sometimes the car cranks and doesn't start-

I seem to cure it EVERY TIME by just jiggling the links-
the car starts the first pop otherwise- really jumps to life

I'll give them a better cleaning and tighten the connections-
and since the car's parked, before next summer I may even spend money on some FUSES to put there

but after fretting over them in various fashion since 1997- I wonder more than ever why they even exist
were they GOING to put fuses there and then never got around to it?
Some other cartridge thing is there om my 96 Aspire,
but I've never had to even look at them
are THOSE fuses now, or are they just fusible cartridges?

on the old 88 a couple of links seemed to weather and fail, but I just replaced the wires with other wires
and I don't know why

my god, can someone tell me why?

[drddan]

They make PAL fuses, that replace the fusible links. Any part store has them. Pull the links out, clean them, and install the PAL fuses, in their place. They plug right in.
You will need 2 pink ones and one green one. Green in the middle and pink on each side. I think it's 20-30-20 amps

[Flyin4stroke]

First thing I do to a festy when I get it. Replace the fusible links.

[bravekozak]

Make sure you carefully remove the brass terminal blades by releasing the tangs, and then wire wheel them. No more problemo. All ready for another twenty years of service.

[bhearts]

I think the man wanted to know why use wires and not actual fuses. From the factory

[navdoc101]

Ford being cheap.
Just change them to the fuses.
No more problems.

[TominMO]

Middle green one is 40 amps, the two pink ones are 30 amps. So 30-40-30 is what you want. Make sure you get the "long-legged" ones; there are short and long leg versions.

These cars were mostly sold overseas, esp. Asia, where the fusible links were perhaps more common, and a way to save money. The fuses we put in as replacements may not have been very available in Asia, esp. back then.

[crazyrog17]

I read here at some point that they saved $2 per car to use fusible links rather than PAL fuses.

[bhearts]

I can't believe people would cut corners fir that amount of money saving

[crazyrog17]

$2 x 40,000 (idk the real number) $80,000. Chalk it up to the bean counters.

[Flyin4stroke]

What can be the purpose of the "fusible links" ?

It lasted fine throughout there warrantied yrs.