Fuseable Link distribution block repair

[bravekozak]

I don't believe the terminals should be soldered. They can be released from the connector, then wire wheeled until the brass is nice and shiny again, then popped back in again for another twenty years.

[TominMO]

The three separate ones come out fairly easily with the proper size of jeweler's flat screwdriver. I think I used 3/16". The big flat ground piece in kozak's pic above is harder to get out. I went to the JY today and got one from an '83 RX-7, same style as ours. Used it to practice on before I did mine.I ended up Dremeling the flat piece out of the JY one, but got the individual connectors out fairly easily. Rather than reassembling the whole thing, I am presently just letting the three fuses dangle in mid-air, for easy cleaning next time. I'll probably put them back in the JY housing, which will be easy to get the flat piece out of.

[bravekozak]

Tomin, You have to put some Mazola oil on the three terminal piece. Then depress and keep pulling the end with the screw tang while depressing and pushing out the terminal on the opposite side. There is no middle tang.

[TominMO]

Tomin, You have to put some Mazola oil on the three terminal piece. Then depress and keep pulling the end with the screw tang while depressing and pushing out the terminal on the opposite side. There is no middle tang.

I looked closely at the excellent pic you provided, so I knew there was no middle tang. Didn't know about the oil trick. After trying for a good while, I gave up and just Dremeled the JY housing. Car runs fine now; glad it was something that simple.

[nitrofarm]

I use WD -40 on a lot of stuff thats electrical but any thin oil will work. The plastic gets so brittle after all those years living in the harsh environment. You have to be really patient. I used an Exacto knife to get at the Tangs because they are so hard to get in between.I also solder "Tinned" the Brass to prevent re-corrosion but its not necessary. Hope the write up helped you Tom

[TominMO]

I use WD -40 on a lot of stuff thats electrical but any thin oil will work. The plastic gets so brittle after all those years living in the harsh environment. You have to be really patient. I used an Exacto knife to get at the Tangs because they are so hard to get in between.I also solder "Tinned" the Brass to prevent re-corrosion but its not necessary. Hope the write up helped you Tom

Yeah, excellent writeup, thanks. I've had a buncha Festy but this is the first time I ever had to do this. It will be done proactively on any future ones I buy.

[bravekozak]

I removed the terminals from every connector in the engine compartment and wire wheeled them (starter, headlights, parking lights, washer, A/C, etc.). I also wire wheeled all of the ground connectors. It makes the car run like new again. No intermittent anything.

[Larry Hampton]

I just finished mine over the weekend. I used a flat tipped punch (the small end of a 1/4 drive extension might work too) and a tack hammer and lightly tapped on all 3 spades of the 1-piece side after pushing the tangs.

I didn't tin it though, after cleaning I used some thick dielectric grease on all the spades before I put them back in the housing.

[big_kid2]

Great Write up! I started to do this as I have been having electrical problems. The spade on the red wire broke off from corrosion. Can't get the Main white wire out either. What do I replace the red wire end with? Are there any specs I need to be concerned with?

[big_kid2]

Sorry hit it twice

[bravekozak]

If you have a set of open barrel crimpers, you don't need to wire wheel the terminals.
I had two of them where the conductor wire was so corroded, they just broke off.
I bought a bunch of replacement terminals from eastern beaver. You only lose about a quarter of an inch. A great way to save a wiring harness. The brass .312 straight tab male terminals cost 35 cents each.

Another set of terminals that need replacing are the .250 ones for the front parking lights and turn signals. The connectors are open and the brass gets extremely corroded after 25 years.

Since we are on the topic. I also highly recommend replacing the terminals in the connector that goes to the starter solenoid.

[nitrofarm]

You really need to follow the corrosion up the wire as far as possible. What I mean is just dont crimp a Spade terminal onto corroded wire. Unwrap the tape and cut out as much of the bad wire as possible. Then solder new wire onto the old,then shrink tube the splice. Then re-wrap the wire with tape.Obviously it goes witout saying that these conections are the most important ones in your entire system.

[harpon]

Can the unit be replaced by wiring in three separate inline fuses? Is there a common ground wire to the assembly? If that's the case, couldn't inline fuses be spliced into that?

Don't know a great deal about electrics, but the inline fuses are cheap. I got some flat end female connectors last fall to re-do the fussy-bles, but I've been thinking maybe the inline fuses are a better idea spliced separately, instead of connecting them to the terminals there.

Someone in the thread earlier mentioned cartridge fuses fit right in. Anyone know what kind those would be- it's obviously been made for fuses that were never put there otherwise.

I think I need to cross check the set-up on my Aspire- but getting old and tired of this kind of thing- it's getting warmer though, and I hope I can get over my aches and pains and have some energy to sort a few more things out on the Festiva this summer. The fusible links have not been making good connection, and sometimes the car won't start- the solution EVERY TIME is to jiggle the links, and then it pops to life on first contact.htd

[nitrofarm]

^ Yes you could use inline fuse's.But its going to look like a mess. A even better option is replacing the Distribution Block with a Protege' unit that already has the cartridge fuses.The biggest problem we have here in the rust belt,is the wires actually turn green way up into the harness. Makes soldering in spilces some what difficult. But being that your in FL you souldnt have this problem.I did a picture turtorial on repairing the Aspire Power Distribution system if you search you might find it.
I'm not real clear on your starting problem... Do you have an Aspire AND a Festiva? The Aspires didnt come with fuseable links- If you post me a picture of what you are having to wiggle I can help you.

[harpon]

The aspire has some kind of fuse block- haven't looked at it much in 12 years and the 80K since then, because I haven't had to. I suppose the same unit might work on the 91 festy with the open links. Had some problem with the links o the old 88 I no longer have, but rebuilt the links themselves with some wire guage as best as I could match it to the connectors.

the 88 and the 91 in need of something