There is too much redundant wiring. Too many places where things can go wrong. I had been noticing that my main 15 amp fuse was getting hot. Really hot. Too hot to touch. From what I read on the SOHC forums this is not a good sign. When I took a look at my fuse box holder I did find signs of melted plastic. This presented a good opportunity to eliminate the fuse box holder altogether and replace the glass fuses with blade types.

You can see the plastic was melted and the metal leads were corroded.

The hanging plastic end was eliminated as well. I just snipped the wire off.

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do. I had two vague ideas. One was to use inexpensive female connectors. And the other idea was the slightly more expensive blade fuse unit.

I tried both methods. They both worked.

This image is the Auto Zone blade receptacle. They run a few bucks, but not worth it.

I ran the main 15 amp fuse through this. I soldered the cables to the wiring harness.

This is the better method. Inexpensive, and no soldering. I just crimped those female ends onto the exposed wires.

Here is a shot of the empty spot were the old fuse holder use to be. Cleans up nicely.

For now, I just zip tied them together and let them hang there. Later I’ll figure out how to hide them under the seat.

This will be my next project: getting rid of those decaying off-white plastic connectors. There is no need for them.

While staring very hard at the electrical system this morning it occurred to me that it would quite simple to convert my old style glass fuse box to a more contemporary blade style fuse system.

Behind the fuse box are six wires, two for each fuse. Each of of those wires travels up and into a female white plastic connector, which connects to a white plastic male connector and then back into six colored wires. All that bulk can be eliminated and replaced by splicing the wires from the white plastic connector and soldering on blade fuse sockets. The blade fuse sockets wouldn’t need to be mounted to the metal harness like the current fuse box they could simply be tucked away under the seat.

I don’t know what this thing is. I didn’t bother looking it up in the Clymer manual. But, its just kinda floating there, held on by the rubber mount. That piece can also be tucked away under the seat.

Just looking at the electronics under the side cover I realize much of the content can be streamlined in some manner.

Just brainstorming. Too much to do before I start tinkering with hiding the wiring.