fuse box terminal corrosion

[Steve G.]

The terminals that hold the fuses on my 1970 have some corrosion. Most of them look fine, but there are a few that look to have some surface rust. I opened the box and see that the wires and clips attached to the back side look fine. Any suggetions for cleaning the clips and replating/sealing? I tried to remove one of the clips from the box with no luck. Is there a trick to doing that? Where can I buy replacement clips? thanks, Steve

[Jack H.]

Re: fuse box terminal corrosion

I'd forget about the notion of replacing individual fuse clips in your junction box. The crimp that was used by the factory to assemble them can be quite tricky!

What you're seeing (intermittent contact between the caps of the fuses and the fuse block holders) isn't unusual. Time takes its toll on surface plating and the contact surfaces tend to oxidize over time making them 'stick' together.

Typically, all is well until you REMOVE an individual fuse that's been oxidized in place. Now the original plated surface that's been somewhat protected by physical contact is exposed to the air and it begins to 'catch up' with the condition of the balance of the clip...

I'd say you have two alternatives:

(1) Buy and install a factory fresh reproduction harness to gain a new/un-aged fuse block.

(2) Attempt to clean and use your factory original.

Tanking the route two path costs you little...

The approach is to disconnect the battery and remove the individual fuses from the fuse block. Expect some to fracture/break IF they're highly oxidized into the clips.

Now, with the clips of the fuse block fully exposed, use a Dremel tool with SS wire wheel to GENTLY clean the surfaces of each fuse clip in the area it makes contact with the metal cap ends of the fuse. Once you've cleaned these surfaces as best you can, shoot the fuse block with compressed air to flush out any stray particles of plating + wire from the wire wheel.

Then, IMMEDIATELY hand coat the fuse block's clips with a light smear of silicone grease. Use either new fuses or do the same clean-up process on your existing fuses and re-assemble the fuse block.

That's about as good as you're going to get with an aged/original fuse block! In many cases, it may be good enough for you to squeeze out another +20 years of use, but there's no guarantee...

[Steve G.]

Re: fuse box terminal corrosion

Thanks Jack. I would like to try to repair the original fuse block and keep the factory harness. I thought silicon grease was a die-electric. Wouldn't that make the electrical connection worse? thanks again, Steve