Re: melted wires

["jtrealtywebspannet" <jtrealty@xxxx>]

On the surface your suggestion of fusing the ground makes some sense 
until you consider what happens after the fuse blows. Because the 
ground is "daisy chained", ie, the grounds are point to point with one 
finally ending up at true ground, by fusing it and having it blow will 
create a backfeed through the other circuits. Also consider that the 
size of the grounding fuse must be capable of ALL loads daisy chained 
into it so it carries more than just 1 circuit's return current. If 
you have a ground wire melting you have bigger problems than what can 
be "fixed" with a fuse. A better solution would be to ground both ends 
of the daisy chain. The fuse that supplies each circuit is meant to 
also protect the return portion of the circuit also. Make sure EVERY 
fuse is the correct size for it's position. Even though the wiring 
of each individual circuit may be capable of carrying more current 
than the fuse is sized for you can see from this scenario that the 
grounds must carry the cumulative total of all the circuits so any 
oversized fuses will allow excess current into the ground.
Having backfeeds into other circuits can cause you to pull your hair 
out trying to figure out what is going on. This can be one of the 
hardest things to diagnose and repair so setting things up to fail in 
this mode is not a good idea.
David Teitelbaum
vin 10757



--- In dmcnews@xxxx, dherv10@xxxx wrote:
> Shain, That's a good idea, but it all circles back to one ground 
wire. No 
> matter how you get there, it's one ground back. If you really want 
to help 
> the situation, then fuse the ground wire. That way if you have a 
short that 
> one fuse in the box doesn't catch it, the ground fuse might.
> John Hervey
> http://www.specialtauto.com/ 
> 
>