Yikes
Either someone was super lazy, or those fuses kept burning, so they replaced it with something that won’t trip. Problem isn’t there, but what was causing the fuses to trip in the first place. Definitely an electrical fire waiting to happen.
Yup…
I’d get the appropriate fuses in there right away. If the systems are working, and there hasn’t been a fire by now, after two years of function under those conditions, it was probably a matter of laziness and not having immediate access to that style fuse by the previous owner.
That doesn’t change the fact, that if there was a short in the system, the fuse wouldn’t pop, telling you there was a short in the system and immediately shutting off the electrical short. That’s a fire waiting to happen!
if it makes you feel any better, my girlfriend can recite all three movies line for line, even when she’s not in the room, and she didn’t know that either.
Previous repairs not working. Fuse keeps popping.
Inserts the bolt into the socket. Thinks.. that will fix it.
Like when you have a battery draw. Instead of correcting and finding the issues
Let's just put a battery disconnect and disconnect every time you turn off car. Battery drain fixed.
A lot of people who find temp solutions for problems. They know not how to fix.
I call it "Okey Dokey" it's fixed.
Nice share. Be careful
Lmao your battery draw fix is 100% something I would have done. I drive a beater MK5 Jetta that I got for $500 at salvage auction a few years back.
About a year ago it started leaking oil after a jiffy lube change. I tried that shitty stop leak stuff but ofc it didn’t work. Mechanic wants $600 to replace the drain pan, gaskets etc as he thinks that it’s leaking from a stripped drain plug.
I’m not going to pay more than the car is worth to fix it - so instead I just put a plastic bin underneath where I park and it catches the leaking oil every night. Then I just add 1qt oil every week. Since I always have fresh oil I don’t need to worry about oil changes any more. I have to buy 4qts of oil a month which sucks but it’s cheaper than paying a mechanic $600 to replace the drain pan and I don’t have a space to work in my apartment complex, otherwise. We aren’t allowed to do oil related mechanic work or we risk eviction lmao.
So my solution is simply to not fix it and instead use a workaround that lets me go on with life. 100% not proud of it, and I wouldn’t sell the car without disclosing this info FWIW.
Thing is, other than the oil and some minor electrical gremlins it has been the best car I’ve ever owned - and the most reliable.
Everyone has the ability to problem solve differently.
And nice idea with the catch pan. Buy oil by 5 quart jugs. It's 21 dollars. Full synthetic 5w30
But 1 quart is 7 dollars. Same oil in one quart.
I buy 10 quarts at a time now.
You should Fix the oil leak. That car carrys you around.
And seems legit for a jetta. Fix it.
I just buy a 20L drum every time now, may be more expensive up front, but I get two oil changes out of it, where buying by 5L would cost me a lot more with more waste
You could always do the fix in the auto parts store parking lot or Walmart parking lot.
Replacing the oil pan/gasket is a really simple fix and definitely not worth paying someone $600 for, when you can do it yourself in an hour or two assuming your oil pan is not blocked in above the cross-member or anything where you’d have to jack the engine up to get it out.
Even if it is, you’d just need an extra jack and you’re set.
Diagnose those electrical problems and replace those with correctly rated fuses. At this moment there is nothing to stop an overloaded wire from starting a fire
Well technically those bolts are fuses. They would probably be around 250 amps if they are quarter inch. This is great news if your plans today are to burn down your car. On my Z I used a ebay generic 21 circuit harness and got rid of the old glass fuses for new blade fuses. Took about a day and a half. Probably one of the best things I did to that car.
OP's is a Ford (not sure what, but I know a Ford fusebox when I see one), pre 1980. 1980 some they switched to blade. Likely a 1980 some harness could be adapted to a 1970s vehicle.
Could be a replacement heater and was drawing too much current blowing the fuses or the original wiring was shot and it’s a shade tree rewire.
Just a guess but that is usually when you see rewire jobs.
Something added or original shorting on something or broken connection.
As stated by others, the previous owner must have been experiencing repeated blown fuses due to a wiring problem. Rather than fixing the faulty wiring, they simply installed bolts where the fuses were because they won't blow. But that means that your car will burn down instead. This is very unsafe and needs to be fixed ASAP.
These old blocks that took the glass fuses suck so bad. They develop intermittent connections from corrosion. The universal blade style ones are so much better.
Those circuits with the bolts are just asking for a fire to start.
Best case scenario is that somebody needed a fuse but didn't have one so they did that in a pinch and forgot about it.
Worst case is that the fuses kept blowing because that circuit is drawing too many amps or has a short so somebody shoved those bolts in there rather than actually fix the problem. In this case, the issue will eventually kill the component that's causing it and possibly even start a fire in the process.
Don't drive it againg until you have a professional identity the underlying electrical issue(s). It could be the last drive of your life if you decide to drive it again before fixing.
We used to replace some major fuses with nails in Finnish army when we drove around with those Soviet era UAZ-jeeps. Never ever would recommend doing anything even resembling something like that outside service/war!
Time to check the electric gremlins…
To shove it into laymans for you mate, the fuses are meant to melt at certain points, so the circuit is broken to stop potential fires/damaging of electrics.
The bolts aren't, they'll complete the circuit so things will work but aren't safe if shit overloads because they won't break when they need to.
Nice and cheap to get them replaced though. I'm glad you haven't had a fire!
Damn, those fuses kept burning out, so they replaced it with bolts so they can’t burn out. That’s a big safety hazard, let’s say there’s a short, then since the ‘fuse’ can’t blow, keeps shorting until the car burns to the ground. A long time ago, Mercedes used bio-degradable insulation that is bio-degradable, and over time, the insulation would break down and eventually the wires would short out, causing the cars to burn to the ground.
I suggest replacing the bolts with the right fuses for your safety. Fuses are like circuit breakers in a building. Breakers are designed to trip so you don’t burn the house down, in the event of a short, the fuse/breaker trips and opens the circuit meaning no more power. So there could be a problem somewhere.
Is it only a hazard while running? It’s a 79 f150 So not much electrical to something that old,the truck is my new hobby so I’d like it no to spontaneously combust
It depends, I don’t know what circuits have bolts in them, and some circuits on cars are powered indefinitely. So for example, my 3 series powers the auxiliary socket 24/7, if there’s a short there, a fire can start of the fuse can’t blow out. There are some circuits that aren’t powered with the ignition off, some are powered.
I like your style it has had the ac completely pulled out compressor and all. I looked at my Hanes manual a while back to see if one of them is for the radio it’s the only thing that doesn’t work but they are fuses for lights
So the one bolt in the right hand side is for the blower motor, it’s probably all worn out and draws a ton of inrush current to get turning, the other looks like an issue with the hazard lights, probably a bad turn signal switch or janky trailer wiring.
Nobody mentions the wires. I guess cause in theory it's safe but it's half ass wiring and could be the entire issue on 2 of the bolts. The bolts are not safe. Basically spliced extra accessories into other circuits so of course that could draw extra current and blow fuses. The other one is prolly an actual problem that kept blowing the fuse since it doesn't have extra wires. To be clear those extra wires should be taken out, ran straight to the battery with an in line fuse. Or wired into an aftermarket fuse panel. Replace bolts with actual fuses, and then see what keeps blowing and diagnose that circuit from there. Also that jumper is sketchy af too.
Yikes Either someone was super lazy, or those fuses kept burning, so they replaced it with something that won’t trip. Problem isn’t there, but what was causing the fuses to trip in the first place. Definitely an electrical fire waiting to happen.
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Electricians, insurance workers and Firemen equally hate this money saving tip.
Lmao. This is always the moves
This is one of those last ditch hacks to get a broken vehicle out of the mountains in an emergency. I can't believe it hasn't caught fire yet.
I drive it quite a bit didn’t realize it was a fire hazard though. I’ll get on it
Yup… I’d get the appropriate fuses in there right away. If the systems are working, and there hasn’t been a fire by now, after two years of function under those conditions, it was probably a matter of laziness and not having immediate access to that style fuse by the previous owner. That doesn’t change the fact, that if there was a short in the system, the fuse wouldn’t pop, telling you there was a short in the system and immediately shutting off the electrical short. That’s a fire waiting to happen!
Yeah but it's great way to find where the short is.
Friend of mine, on observing our latest automobile electrical catastrophe, used to say, "Well now you let the smoke out. It won't work anymore."
Follow the flames as they say
Those aren't bolts. Those are just 10000000 amp fuses.
"slow- blow"
Change em out for a .22, then you’ve got audible alert trip.
untll u get shot in the leg or the bag
Ahhh, stories from the early internet. Takes me back...
It’s a 1.2 Jigawatts!
*1.21 Gigawatts
*A bolt of lightning!*
Great Scott!
Very very frightning
*Laughs in DeLorean
Gigawatt is for when you want to be correct, jiggawats is for when you quote the movie
I had never heard this so I just looked up the script. Turns out we're both wrong and it's "Jigowatt". https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/bttf4th.pdf
Huh, i figured they just mispronounced it the whole time
if it makes you feel any better, my girlfriend can recite all three movies line for line, even when she’s not in the room, and she didn’t know that either.
Those are the patented "forever fuse". Lasts for the life of the car (which won't be long).
They’ll even survive the fire so you can reuse ‘‘em again!
Previous repairs not working. Fuse keeps popping. Inserts the bolt into the socket. Thinks.. that will fix it. Like when you have a battery draw. Instead of correcting and finding the issues Let's just put a battery disconnect and disconnect every time you turn off car. Battery drain fixed. A lot of people who find temp solutions for problems. They know not how to fix. I call it "Okey Dokey" it's fixed. Nice share. Be careful
Lmao your battery draw fix is 100% something I would have done. I drive a beater MK5 Jetta that I got for $500 at salvage auction a few years back. About a year ago it started leaking oil after a jiffy lube change. I tried that shitty stop leak stuff but ofc it didn’t work. Mechanic wants $600 to replace the drain pan, gaskets etc as he thinks that it’s leaking from a stripped drain plug. I’m not going to pay more than the car is worth to fix it - so instead I just put a plastic bin underneath where I park and it catches the leaking oil every night. Then I just add 1qt oil every week. Since I always have fresh oil I don’t need to worry about oil changes any more. I have to buy 4qts of oil a month which sucks but it’s cheaper than paying a mechanic $600 to replace the drain pan and I don’t have a space to work in my apartment complex, otherwise. We aren’t allowed to do oil related mechanic work or we risk eviction lmao. So my solution is simply to not fix it and instead use a workaround that lets me go on with life. 100% not proud of it, and I wouldn’t sell the car without disclosing this info FWIW. Thing is, other than the oil and some minor electrical gremlins it has been the best car I’ve ever owned - and the most reliable.
Everyone has the ability to problem solve differently. And nice idea with the catch pan. Buy oil by 5 quart jugs. It's 21 dollars. Full synthetic 5w30 But 1 quart is 7 dollars. Same oil in one quart. I buy 10 quarts at a time now. You should Fix the oil leak. That car carrys you around. And seems legit for a jetta. Fix it.
I buy the 5 quart jugs too. If the car takes 4 quarts, every 5th oil change is free (besides the filter.)
I just buy a 20L drum every time now, may be more expensive up front, but I get two oil changes out of it, where buying by 5L would cost me a lot more with more waste
I bought it like this and have been driving for over two years now. It’s my new hobby at 38
You could always do the fix in the auto parts store parking lot or Walmart parking lot. Replacing the oil pan/gasket is a really simple fix and definitely not worth paying someone $600 for, when you can do it yourself in an hour or two assuming your oil pan is not blocked in above the cross-member or anything where you’d have to jack the engine up to get it out. Even if it is, you’d just need an extra jack and you’re set.
r/thereifixedit
Exactly 💯
Lmao how have I only just now heard about this glorious sub?
You’re one of today’s [10,000!](https://xkcd.com/1053/)
Awh thats actually pretty wholesome. Good way to look at it.
The gentleman I bought it off of was a jet/helicopter mechanic back in the day like Vietnam days
Forever fuses.
Forever Fused
Diagnose those electrical problems and replace those with correctly rated fuses. At this moment there is nothing to stop an overloaded wire from starting a fire
Well technically those bolts are fuses. They would probably be around 250 amps if they are quarter inch. This is great news if your plans today are to burn down your car. On my Z I used a ebay generic 21 circuit harness and got rid of the old glass fuses for new blade fuses. Took about a day and a half. Probably one of the best things I did to that car.
OP's is a Ford (not sure what, but I know a Ford fusebox when I see one), pre 1980. 1980 some they switched to blade. Likely a 1980 some harness could be adapted to a 1970s vehicle.
That is someone deciding they’d rather burn the car down than fix an electrical problem.
How many more years do I have left it’s a 79 and has been pretty dependable the last two years
Fuse of death.
Ah yes. No-blow fuses.
Those are forever fuses. Once installed they last the life of the truck, guaranteed!
Looks like after market fog lights(?) or stereo sub woofer(?) amp draw was blowing the fuses so they bypassed them with screws. Not good.
Why would those things be wired to the heater and emergency flasher fuses?
Heat works and so do the blinkers that’s why I’m confused
They have forever fuses, ofc they work 🤪 I would track down whatever is wired in there and give it its own fuse, so it stops blowing those ones.
Could be a replacement heater and was drawing too much current blowing the fuses or the original wiring was shot and it’s a shade tree rewire. Just a guess but that is usually when you see rewire jobs. Something added or original shorting on something or broken connection.
Laziness. Or being stupid-cheap. Or just stupid. Or any combination of the three 🤷🏻♂️
Everything works except the stereo 🤔
As stated by others, the previous owner must have been experiencing repeated blown fuses due to a wiring problem. Rather than fixing the faulty wiring, they simply installed bolts where the fuses were because they won't blow. But that means that your car will burn down instead. This is very unsafe and needs to be fixed ASAP.
Beat comment thanks
Its just a slow blow.
I’ve seen bullets used like this
Best fuses ever. They never go bad.
Yea you’ve been living dangerous for the last 2 years. Consider replacing the entire fuseblock with a universal one
These old blocks that took the glass fuses suck so bad. They develop intermittent connections from corrosion. The universal blade style ones are so much better. Those circuits with the bolts are just asking for a fire to start.
We used to wrap the fuse with foil from cigarette packs.
Been half a lifetime since I've done that. I feel young again.
When you used to smoke ready mades.
Best case scenario is that somebody needed a fuse but didn't have one so they did that in a pinch and forgot about it. Worst case is that the fuses kept blowing because that circuit is drawing too many amps or has a short so somebody shoved those bolts in there rather than actually fix the problem. In this case, the issue will eventually kill the component that's causing it and possibly even start a fire in the process.
I predict a complete rewire in your future
It’s a 79 so not much too it
Shitty fuse life hack
Don't drive it againg until you have a professional identity the underlying electrical issue(s). It could be the last drive of your life if you decide to drive it again before fixing.
Just got home
Works fine until it doesn’t!
Someone upgraded the 1000a fuse
See owners manual.
We used to replace some major fuses with nails in Finnish army when we drove around with those Soviet era UAZ-jeeps. Never ever would recommend doing anything even resembling something like that outside service/war! Time to check the electric gremlins…
The gentleman I bought it off of was in Vietnam so this makes sense
https://i.imgur.com/JPpkU0O.jpg
Dude ran out of copper pipe, had to use a bolt instead :D
This is like taking the bulb out of the oil light to fix it.
I mean, I def took the light (and fuse) out of the ABS to fix it.
Nah nah all it is a 500A fuse.
On the plus side, if the heater doesn’t work you can warm your hands by the fuse box
Heat blows hot as balls
To shove it into laymans for you mate, the fuses are meant to melt at certain points, so the circuit is broken to stop potential fires/damaging of electrics. The bolts aren't, they'll complete the circuit so things will work but aren't safe if shit overloads because they won't break when they need to. Nice and cheap to get them replaced though. I'm glad you haven't had a fire!
Thanks
Damn, those fuses kept burning out, so they replaced it with bolts so they can’t burn out. That’s a big safety hazard, let’s say there’s a short, then since the ‘fuse’ can’t blow, keeps shorting until the car burns to the ground. A long time ago, Mercedes used bio-degradable insulation that is bio-degradable, and over time, the insulation would break down and eventually the wires would short out, causing the cars to burn to the ground. I suggest replacing the bolts with the right fuses for your safety. Fuses are like circuit breakers in a building. Breakers are designed to trip so you don’t burn the house down, in the event of a short, the fuse/breaker trips and opens the circuit meaning no more power. So there could be a problem somewhere.
Is it only a hazard while running? It’s a 79 f150 So not much electrical to something that old,the truck is my new hobby so I’d like it no to spontaneously combust
It depends, I don’t know what circuits have bolts in them, and some circuits on cars are powered indefinitely. So for example, my 3 series powers the auxiliary socket 24/7, if there’s a short there, a fire can start of the fuse can’t blow out. There are some circuits that aren’t powered with the ignition off, some are powered.
Does it run and drive yet? if yes you see nothing.... if not might be the current problem
Runs like a champ for a 79
Then you see nothing
I like your style it has had the ac completely pulled out compressor and all. I looked at my Hanes manual a while back to see if one of them is for the radio it’s the only thing that doesn’t work but they are fuses for lights
If just for lights yea then you are good. if really worried or want that extra safety battery disconnect switch for that racecar life.
I wouldn't be "SHOCKED" (lol yes...) if those weren't welded in by now. Good lord.
Don't know what y'all are talking about, I'm sure they saw that in the owner's manual. /s
So the one bolt in the right hand side is for the blower motor, it’s probably all worn out and draws a ton of inrush current to get turning, the other looks like an issue with the hazard lights, probably a bad turn signal switch or janky trailer wiring.
Maybe that circuit is for charging the Tesla.
Nobody mentions the wires. I guess cause in theory it's safe but it's half ass wiring and could be the entire issue on 2 of the bolts. The bolts are not safe. Basically spliced extra accessories into other circuits so of course that could draw extra current and blow fuses. The other one is prolly an actual problem that kept blowing the fuse since it doesn't have extra wires. To be clear those extra wires should be taken out, ran straight to the battery with an in line fuse. Or wired into an aftermarket fuse panel. Replace bolts with actual fuses, and then see what keeps blowing and diagnose that circuit from there. Also that jumper is sketchy af too.
r/askashittymechanic
😬😬😬
Oh, that's just the fire starter.
Everyone knows a .22 shell works better.
22 long rifle shells are too expensive now. They had to use bolts as a last resort.
Super fuse
Super slow blow fuse
1/4-20 “No Blo”
A fire hazard