Demon Brat Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 After we reassembled my son's 1979 Subaru Brat he blew a fuse on his headlights. This is the 25 amp fuse on the very bottom of the fuse block. We replaced it thinking the fuse just went bad, This weekend while I was in his car I noticed a pile of blown fuses on the drivers floor so I asked him if he was still blowing fuses and he said "yeah, a couple times" So I started trying to problem solve it. I cleaned everything up and made sure the fuse had, what appeared to be, good contact. When I turned the lights on they worked fine but negative side (left side as you face it) got hotter than hell. It would get hot enough you did not want to touch it. The plastic fuse block has also been burnt in the past because it was all melted. I pulled both wires off the back of the block, replaced the female ends and connected them directly to a new blade style fuse and bypassed the fuse block all together. I still have a fuse in it, I just connected the female ends right onto the blades of the newer style fuse. It seems to be working better. The fuse still gets "warm". you can hold it and it is not uncomfortable but you can tell it has heated up a little. I know there is a ground near the battery for the lights and it is clean and tight. ANY IDEAS OR HELPFUL TIPS? Thanks, Demon Brat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 (edited) You have something drawing excessive amps in the circuit,most likely a bad connection somewhere. Ideally you should trace the wires from the battery through the headlight circuit until you find corroded connections and clean them up.But the dash is in the way and the wires are bundled with all of the other wires in the harness.So you could take apart and clean any connector you can find.If you can't find the source of your problems you could always add a relay near the lights to operate them so the stock wire from the fuse panel is just a signal/switch wire and it wouldn't have much current.As a plus your headlights will be brighter because they will have full 12V getting to them. Just splice in the relay so the signal wire is the stock wire,wire the output of the relay to the lights,add in a ground and a fused wire from the battery. Edited March 12, 2014 by Uberoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosens Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Also noticed this over they years. Thanks for posting. I have replaced a few fuses, and found the block hot at the bottom , but have yet to spend time on it. Hopefully spring gets me working on that and other issues with my 78. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subieguy Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Wasn't there a factory recall for this issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demon Brat Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 Thanks, sounds like a nice Saturday morning project for the boy and me. When we rebuilt it, I mounted a nice fused power supply block to the firewall to run his AMP and four spotlights. There are 5 more open circuits I can use. I wondered if that factory fuse block configuration just wasn't heavy duty enough. We were pretty diligent about cleaning every connector and wire when we put it all back together, but we will check again. I figured this wasn't the first BRAT with a melted fuse block....once again thanks. Demon Brat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demon Brat Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 (edited) Here it is with all it lights on. Edited March 13, 2014 by Demon Brat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosens Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Gee, I thought quad lights rule. But eight is GREAT !! Looks ready for action! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 just dont press the brakes or you might kill the alternator. lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevint143 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 that looks bitchin with all the ights on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cz777 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 bad connection and/or bad ground will do this .....ohm meter time ....and the hunt is on .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 slick looking brat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertmann73 Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I went HID main headlights and all LED running and park lamps on the brat and now it keeps a great charge. The only incandescent i have now are the auxiliary high beams and the roll bar lamps. even the dash lights are led. before i would turn on the high beams and blow fuses all the time. this was my solution as apposed to tracing wires. LEDs pull very little amps and HIDs are run on a relay system with power converters. all the leds are found on craigslist and are relatively cheap. Car looks sick at night also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spicypeanut Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I went HID main headlights and all LED running and park lamps on the brat and now it keeps a great charge. The only incandescent i have now are the auxiliary high beams and the roll bar lamps. even the dash lights are led. before i would turn on the high beams and blow fuses all the time. this was my solution as apposed to tracing wires. LEDs pull very little amps and HIDs are run on a relay system with power converters. all the leds are found on craigslist and are relatively cheap. Car looks sick at night also. I'm researching changing all the lights on my brat to LED. What did you use for your headlights and accessory lights? Any links would be greatly appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertmann73 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 keep in mind i am probably one of the most insane members here. i got the lamp fixtures out of an old suzuki 1100 crotch rocket and then researched the proper bulb on e-bay and matched that with an HID compatable..if you know a bike scrap yard you may get lucky. otherwise your lookin at a 50-60 dollar kit as apposed to the $20 kit i purchased for my lenses...they are glass by the way and look bitchin. as far as the rest of the bulbs you have to research all by name...1157, T 5, T 10 etc.. and pick the ones with the best lumination qualities. for example the 1157 red have many different styles. the ones that have around 20 leds on them are pointed in all directions and light the whole tail lense. the cheep-os are all facing in one direction making a red dot on the lense and suck. it tkes a while to find them and a few key word tricks to find in bulk. for instance i replaced my halogen driving light bulbs with hyper blue lED. not very bright but look sick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUBARU3 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Yes, the 25 amp fuse is a common problem. It heats up on almost ALL gen 1 cars and BRATs. There was a recall. Problem: THE DEFECT INVOLVES THE 25 AMP HEADLIGHT FUSE HOLDER. THERE MAY BE EXCESSIVE ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE CAUSED BY THE LOOSENESS OF THE RIVET HOLDING THE FUSE HOLDER TO THE TERMINAL PLATE. EXCESS RESISTANCE MAY CAUSE THE SOLDERED END OF THE FUSE TO MELT. AN OPEN CIRCUIT COULD OCCUR AND THE HEADLIGHTS WOULD NOT OPERATE. Recall Details - 3/3/1983 Make sure you pinch the fuse holder clips to make them tighter. You can rewire and add a separate/high quality fuse holder to this circuit. Todd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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