Inline cartridge fuse to starter

[guidster]

Recently acquired bare bones 79 c1500. The positive cable from battery going to the starter is first routed to a Westinghouse box that contains a 30amp copper cartridge fuse. Like the ones in older homes. Why would someone install this? Should I eliminate it?

 

[jetman]

The only reason someone would install something like that in that location was to prove that they were truly the king of stupid. Get it out of there, will most likely need to buy a new cable.

 

[MikeB]

30 amp fuse between battery and starter and it's not blown? Surprising.

If you want to ensure there's some protection against shorts to ground, find a service manual for your truck to see where fusible links are installed by the factory. My 82 has two of them coming off the starter (one to the alternator output post, the other to a fuse panel "feed" terminal). Then there's a third fusible link coming off the firewall distribution block to a second fuse panel "feed" terminal and the alternator sense terminal.

Your 79 may be different from my 82. My 69 was totally different with a 10 gauge wire running from the battery through a fusible link to a soldered junction (aka "splice") that connected to the alternator output post and fuse panel.

 

[guidster]

What I thought

thanks for the replies. That's pretty much what I thought but better to check first. Yup planning on upgrading the cable to new 1/0 gauge. Both positive and negative will get run through a(separate ones) Scorpion distribution block. I think I'm gonna need both.