How to go about making a fuse block

[1990lumina]

So after all the damn problems with this POS electrical system in this car of mine I want to add a seperate fuse block for all my add on electrical items. Is this possible?

 

What all is involved?

 

I'm thinking of mounting this new fuse block concealed at the very bottom of my center console (remove that black liner and mount it on the floor and then the black liner will go back in the console).

 

I'll probably be running a 4guage power wire from the aux. terminal through the firewall and under the carpet at the center of the car (just in front of the console)..and then into the inside of the console. The ground I think could be one of the bolts that bolts to the floor.

 

So, accesories I plan to run present/in the future. After I install this block if it is possible I will install a triple "12volt power center" for things like my cell phone, and any other thing I would need to run with a 12volt cig. lighter end on it. This would be mounted onto the black liner on the visible side at the front side of the console and the plugs will be facing up.

 

I also will properly wire up my "poor man's DIC", or totally eliminate the stupid thing.

 

I also am thinking of putting in an inverter and having that accessible for rear seat passengers.

 

Whose knows, if I do get these AQ9 seats I guess I could wire it up to that as well.

 

And finally, I want to actually wire my factory deck to this new fuse block for power and I'll ground it somewhere there as well. I feel the factory harness is fucked and this is causing my whinning problems, I dunno.

 

And then I'll have some room to add on if I install additional things to the car as well. I feel it would be kind of nice to have a more major 12 volt supply centerilzed in the car.

 

So, what type of fuse block to I buy. What does it look like when I get it? Will I have to wire a ton to get all the circuits to work? What amp rating of fuses should I be usuing for the acessories??

 

 

And additionally I'd like to add a small block to my trunk so I can run my amp and a 12volt power source in the trunk as well for a Koolatron cooler or something else that may need to be plugged in there. Who knows. I find it nice to able to just wire in a new circuit instead of splicing into a existing one and fucking it up.

 

Any opinions, comments??

 

thanks

[slick]

I would put a large fuse inline on that 4guage wire if you plan on doing that.

[1990lumina]

I'm thinking of just buying a 4guage or whatever guage you guys think I need wire from like an amp kit...the last wire I bought like that had an inline fuse...so thanks for the tip!!! But should I also put in indiviual fuses into the block or not??

[Crazy K]

yes, I think you should. especiallly if you are using items that don't have their own protection.

On my lumina I cheated. I added fuses connectors from a junk fuse block to the empty slots on the glove box fuse block, connected them to the main power lines(ie switchable and constant hots) and ran a few accesories off of there.

The switchable provides a source of power for my mp3 cd player, which retains memory if you cut power to it, and you won't forget to turn it off, and the constant a secondary cig lighter at an alternate location for various on the road needs.

mine work great. Now I need more switchables! aaahhhh seat warmers.... just a thought.

[paulo57509]

Any one of these should work:

 

http://store.summitracing.com/default.asp?Ntt=fuse+block&searchinresults=false&Ntk=KeywordSearch&DDS=1&N=115&target=egnsearch.asp&x=23&y=11

[Pabz]

Can you get 25 amp relays from autoparts stores like Partsource?

 

Perfect for setting up IGN only power.

[1990lumina]

Can you get 25 amp relays from autoparts stores like Partsource?

 

No idea....

 

I'm hoping I can buy all my parts from Princess Auto lol....they usually have shit like that....I dunno if they would have this relay or not. Do you think I should not be leaving this an "always live" block?? Maybe you are right, I should have it turn it on via relay right??

[Pabz]

If its for accessories then definitley use a relay, You have spawned this idea in my head now. I already have low gage wires in place so I will try this out since I want to get those seat heaters straight from the bat.

 

I'll see what princess has.

[1990lumina]

I got all the wiring in, just need to wire up the relay and block.

 

Pabz - Princess has everything you'll need. I bought a 6 fuse block....it's actually quite nice from Princess.

I got all my connectors, wiring, etc. from there as well. Only thing that I already had but Princess did have is the relay. The relay I'm using is rating for 30amps so I hope it works.

 

So tomorrow I'll wire everything up and take pictures if I have time. Everything went fairly smooth, however I couldn't get the wiring under the carpet because it was frozen and I didn't have time to pull the carpet up (I was trying to use a coat hanger. Anyway so this summer I'll pull the carpet and everything will be nice and clean. Right now it looks okay since I put all the wires into that plastic conduit type stuff.

 

I got the REM by splicing into the stereo harness, and I ran two extra wires down from the radio to the block as well, since I might run the stereo off the new block (something is very wrong with the harness for my stereo IMO.)

 

And yeah, not much more then that to say...I hope everything works good after I wire the block up. I immediately will be running two extra 12 volt power sources inside my console. Then if I get my SIRUIS receiver tomororw I'll wire that up permentaely maybe..or just use one of the sources in the console..who knows.

Then I will also add a single 12 volt power source to rear seat passengers in the back of the console. (this will be later on).

And I may also install an inverter, (300watts or so??), and have that for 120v if I ever need it.

 

But yeah, everything will good, so I'll update with pictures tomororw of everything totally complete.

 

Next project will be adding a 12volt source in the trunk...not to bad since I already have 4 guage wire in there.