[70FuselagePilot]

Every had the fusible link under the hood of your car fry itself??

Scenario: 70' Chrysler c body w/ 383. Came to dead stop with no power the other day. I noticed a bit of smoke coming from under the hood. Turns out the fusible link was totally cooked/melted, apparently caused by a short somewhere. I have not found any immediate evidence anywhere near or on the positive batt cable of shorting out, also I pulled apart and checked the bulkhead connector for any burn marks, charred blades, nastiness, etc. and it's all clean as whistle. No charred or frayed wiring either. I am aware of the situation with the Chryco ammeter issue and how all the power goes thru this one gauge. I'm strongly leaning towards upgrading the wiring scheme to address that, however for now I need to know if a new fusible link can be spliced into the original batt. cable? The only credible way I can start chasing any shorts is to get pwr back up again so I can use a test light/multimeter. So I'll need to either repair/splice the original positive battery cable or replace the entire cable with a new one.

Would sure like to know if anyone else has gone through this and if so what was the outcome.

 

[trs11758]

fusible links were replaced with fuses nowadays..to kill all in one shot shows a severe grounding problem..checking all the wires to see what hit ground use an ohmmeter and trace them, I have had many friends mod their motors to have a wire against the exhaust somewhere and it shorted something out..
I would splice the auxillary positive lead (if you have one) into a terminal post, from that post you could put the replaceable links to it or get the fuse replacement wire ones..
Check the alternator area also and see if it is still putting out 14.0vdc to 14.7vdc, maybe there is a grounded connector or wire against the housing..

 

[Bob Lincoln]

A shorted alternator output wire can cause this. A friend once screwed a valve cover down and pinched this wire, and smoked that fusible link. Whether you use a new link or a fuse, make certain that you can as beefy a contact as possible on both sides. He only had 3 or 4 burned strands to connect to at the bulkhead connector, and the car was never right afterward - charged too much when above idle,and discharged at idle.