I am going through my 1970 XR7 and have decided to upgrade the fuse box. I will be adding things like an electric choke carb, headlight conversion and electric cooling fans. I don’t care to crawl up under my dash to change a fuse so am looking at an auto/marine fuse box and mounting it in the engine bay. Has anyone done this before?
This is what I did to expand the electrical system beyond what is there. This box gives the ability to have two hot buss bars one which is wired as 12+ and the other is switched ignition to feed the relays.
Still a work in progress but you get the idea.
Thanks. That is what I am thinking of doing. I have the steering column out now so won’t get much better to access the area.
You don’t need to change out the existing fuse panel. Just add a new one for the new accessories you want to add. You can use relays to switch power to the new fuse block or put the whole thing on an inline fuse.
Yes I should clarify I did not replace the fuse panel but added the additional one. I ran a new power cable to the battery with in an line fuse. I grabbed ignition power from the starter relay that feeds a relay in the fuse box so I can run other accessory’s.
These are pretty cool and easy to wire. I used two of them in my car. One in the rear and one in the middle of the car to support aftermarket fans, fuel pump controller, nos fuel pump, nos heaters, and various run/start devices I wanted to keep off the ignition switch. The rest of my car uses stock harness that I reviewed in detail and rewrapped…
Thanks for all the input. One reason for wanting to relocate it from under the dash is because it is almost impossible for me and my bad back to twist enough to get up under the dash. I am going to pull the old fuse box out and look at everything. The accessories would be the main thing and a box with capacity to add the fans, electric choke etc.
You really won’t have any need to access the original fuse box. The factory wiring, load and fuse sizes are pretty much spot on and now tested over the past 50+ years. Add all of your new items in the new fuse box. The new box will share no circuits with the old one. You will make it much easier in he future for yourself, or any one else, that has to work on the car. The new power distribution and fuse box can be under the hood and easy to get to. It won’t share any circuits with the old fuse box.
I guess I am not understanding why you want to move the factory fuse box. Those fuses only blow when there is a short of some variety on one of those circuits or some one adds something to an existing circuit. A blown fuse indicates a problem that must be fixed. If you are blowing fuses regularly, look for modifications made by previous owners.
Thanks. You are right. I guess with the steering column out I could inspect it, clean the contacts and maybe replace the fuses with new ones. Then mount a new accessary box in the engine bay. Everything is currently working on the car other than a broken wire near the starter relay. Also, the fuse able link looks to have been replaced once. I am going to redo that with a better soldering job.
Also, nice looking Eliminator clone.