Hi guys, I recently wired in new Autometer gauges and a horn. Today while the truck was idling, I had the radio on, air compressors running (bagged truck), and when I pushed the horn, I blew the 3 amp fuse that runs some of my auxiliaries. Any suggestions? I was thinking of taking a few of those auxiliaries and running those from a different circuit. Or do I dare bump up to a 5 amp fuse? I definitely don't want to fry my new gauges!
Horn should be on a relay. The horn button should be the ground for the relay trigger circuit. Shouldn’t be any fuses to blow.
Take off some load to a separate circuit. If you keep bumping up the fuse amperage, at some point the wiring will become the fuse.
first - exactly what are you working on? make, model, etc? stock steering column/steering wheel? wiring come with kit? kit only have fuses, no relays? so, does fuse blow when you just push the horn button and nothing else running?
A 3 Amp fuse is way too small to run multiple auxiliaries. 5 Amps is not going to fry common auto wiring (i.e. 18 Gauge and heavier). I do suggest moving some of the auxiliaries do a new fuse position. You really need to identify each auxiliary, determine it's individual current draw (Amps) , then wire and fuse appropriately.
If you remove your fuse, you can insert an ammeter in there ("Amps" setting on a multimeter, on the highest scale). Then, one by one, turn on your various loads, and note the current draw. Add them all up, to get your total circuit load. As long as your wiring gauge can handle that load, start with a fuse which is just a bit more than the total (10 amps total, use 12 amp fuse, etc.), but always less than your wire gauge can handle. Some electric motors may have a high starting current, so you may have to "adjust" your fuse rating accordingly.
The fuses are there to protect the wire....fuse size should mostly be based on the size of wire that it is protecting.
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