MK1 Cortina fuse box.

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1970 cortina GT
Posts: 363
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 7:19 pm
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

MK1 Cortina fuse box.

Post by 1970 cortina GT »

Toying with the idea of adding a fuse box to my 66 GT. I'm sure it has been bought up previously, does anyone have a simplified electrical drawing that I could follow of what is recommended to be fused. Original wiring in car so I should be able to follow colour coding. Many thanks.
Life isn't complete until you have a pair of twin cams in the garage...
JAN
Posts: 181
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:57 am
Location: Wigan, UK

Re: MK1 Cortina fuse box.

Post by JAN »

Sorry, but I've only just found this, hence the delay. I did this to the 107E Prefect; it was a pig of a job and involved a lot - an awful lot - of extra cables, and it was difficult to make these look neat. I later had to strip out a lot of stuff, including the wiring, when the car went to be restored. I've rebuilt it since, and the fusebox didn't go back, nor will it.

Ideally, you need to segregate different functions, e.g. the side and tail lights on one side should be individually fused so if one fuse blows, you still have a light at each end. Each of the headlamp filaments should have its own fuse so you don't lose all your headlamps one dark night, and if the fuse to the indicators blows, you still have brake lights, wipers, etc.

In a more modern car, the fusebox is part of the system and designed in, so the feed from, say, the ignition switch goes to the individual switches and from there to individual fuses in the box. With these cars it doesn't happen that way.

The 100E / 107E (and probably Cortina) side lights, for instance, have a break under the bonnet. Two outward cables emerge from this, one to the driver's side front lamp and one to the otherside front , both rear lights and the numberplate lamp. Three output cables emerge from the ignition switch: one feeds the instrument panel and a feed from this serves the indicators, while another from there powers the heater motor. Another from the ignition switch goes to the coil, and from this a cable goes to the horn, and from the horn another goes to the brake light switch. To make the fusebox viable, you have to bypass all this and run new cables to the switches, and from the switches to the fusebox. It all got very messy in the end.
Sideways
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:58 pm
Location: Delta BC Canada

Re: MK1 Cortina fuse box.

Post by Sideways »

In over 50 years of Mk1 Cortinas, never felt the need to add a fuse box on stock vehicles.
JAN
Posts: 181
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:57 am
Location: Wigan, UK

Re: MK1 Cortina fuse box.

Post by JAN »

They do have their advantages, and I have seen a few burnt out looms, but in retrospect, I tend to agree!
1970 cortina GT
Posts: 363
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 7:19 pm
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Re: MK1 Cortina fuse box.

Post by 1970 cortina GT »

Hmmm, good to know, maybe I'll just keep thinking about it for a while longer... Thanks.
Life isn't complete until you have a pair of twin cams in the garage...
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