difference between fuse and fusible link

[V8 Middy]

A friend of mine tried to jump start their suzuki with the leads the wrong way round. Smoke came out so they disconnected immediately and called RACV. RACV said they had blown the main fusible link on the positive wire, cut it out and reconnected the wire to get them going, reccommending they go to an auto elec to get a new fusible link made.

Question is: is there any difference between paying the sparky to make a fusible link and buying a chunky fuse and putting that in for 1/4 of the price? Or did the fusible link have some sort of reverse polarity protection??


Thanks,

Dave

[chimpboy]

No difference in purpose, a fusible link is just a fuse with a fancy name that's hard to replace.

I would just find out the current rating it's meant to have and wire in a modern fuse holder or even better a resettable circuit breaker.

[84ZOOKSTA]

A fuseable link is a piece of wire that is rated to a certain current. it will not blow it will burn and break which means it can handle high current for a short period of time without going open circuit.

If you use a fuse it may blow in these times of high current. this high current will happen when the battery is really flat or you are jump starting, winching etc so you might be constantly replacing this fuse.

Cheers
Simon.

[chimpboy]

Well, the word "fuse" is really just short for "fusible link." They are the same thing and serve the same purpose, and any fuse can be fast or slow depending on its specifications. Fuses or fusible links are both just pieces of wire rated to a certain current, designed to break the circuit if they are carrying excess current.

[-Mick-]

fuseable links are available in any auto parts store though.... why was he told to go to an auto elec

We blew mine on the beach when a mate put my battery back in backwards actually blew pretty much every fuse We snapped the tips on it, mashed them together with a pair of multigrips and cable tied them. Super redneck and really fairly dangerous but it got us back to civilisation where we could replace the link at the local autopro for $9 or whatever it was.

My passenger had the fire extinguisher ready in hand the whole trip though

Carry a spare for your fuseable links in the toolbox

[Oscars]

because a auto elec can give relevent correct advise. they should only charge about 20 bucks anyway to replace the fuseable link.