[DML] Re:Delorean fires...

["Walter" <Whalt@xxxx>]

Wayne,

In the situation of a poor electrical connection, a fuse failing to blow has
little to do with a fire starting. To illustrate this, consider the car's
cigarette lighter. It gets hot enough to start a fire! And it does this
without blowing any fuses either. This is because of a 'poor connection.'
The coil wire that glows red hot is a nickel/chromium alloy which is a poor
conductor electricity, but it can withstand high temperatures without
melting.

A loose wire covered with flammable insulation is a similar story. When a
connector on one end develops a poor connection, it heats up just like the
cigarette lighter. But since the wire isn't made to withstand that kind of
heat, things tend to melt or catch fire. All this can happen without
drawing enough current to blow a fuse.

I think the wiring associated with the Delorean headlight switch is a bad
design. They use a relay to bypass the high current going to the headlights
around the headlight switch, but they neglect to do this with the current
going to the side marker lights. Granted, the side marker lights do not
draw as much current as the headlights, yet it is still too much for the
switch to reliably handle. When the switch corrodes or wears enough to
develop a poor connection, you will be able to light a cigarette off of it
without blowing a fuse. It is no wonder that headlight switches on some
older GM cars are made of porcelain.

If and when I catch up on other projects on my Delorean, I'm going to add a
relay for this circuit too.

Walt Tampa, FL


-----Original Message-----
>I'm wondering if a non-blowing fuse continued to allow a short to glow red
>hot until the surrounding area ignited or if a split second spark threw a
red
>hot ember that smouldered then ignited