Making a fused wire

Hi,
I need to make a fused wire between battery positive terminal and the horn live wire. I will eventually get to the bottom of why pressing the horn stalls the car but for the moment I just need a quick fix!

What bits will I need? Is there a particular size of wire I need and what ampage? I’m not clued up on electrics so any help would be great

What are you trying to achieve with this wire? To me battery positive to the horn will just make the horn beep, or toot, or whatever they do.

paceman said

What are you trying to achieve with this wire? To me battery positive to the horn will just make the horn beep, or toot, or whatever they do.

no VW wired them up different to the rest of the world feeding +ve to the horn and earthed at the steering wheel horn push.

Use an inline fuse the same rating as used in the fuse box?

Early-1800 said

paceman said

What are you trying to achieve with this wire? To me battery positive to the horn will just make the horn beep, or toot, or whatever they do.

no VW wired them up different to the rest of the world feeding +ve to the horn and earthed at the steering wheel horn push.

Use an inline fuse the same rating as used in the fuse box?

Well over here on the Westy built, the engineers in America wired the horn relay to switch power, and not ground.

The horn system wires run alon side of the ignition switch wires, and bossibly you have a chaffed wire in one or more of the looms, and when you honk the horns
you are grounding out an ignition wire.

Fusible like wire can be sourced for replacement and a 40amp wire can be spliced in with either good crimp connectors or soldered and heat shrink Be mindful of the quickness of the connections as to much heat can open the new wire.  A quick way that I have used on my rides over the years is if you pull on the fused wire it stretches if it is blown, and usually has a burn ring where the wire is blown.

I have used both Fusible wire as replacement, and if you can't source it at a good parts vendor then you might try a breakers.  

The other way as mentioned is to solder and heat shrink a weather proofed fuse holder 40 amp in to the circuit.

As Briano says if the problem is at the steering col/ign wiring end the prob wil still prob occur,  still it will be a step towards isolating the isssue if that is the case

Yeah that’s the kind of thing I was thinking, a weatherproof fuse holder-just need to find one and a metre of wiring!
The problem is defo in the wiring loom somewhere as I have tried everything else, although it does not seem to cause any problems with any other circuits. I did a test with a piece of wire from the positive battery to the horn and it worked perfectly without stalling the car so a good result!

Where’s the best place to source the bits and bobs from, any suggestions gratefully received 

Trying to find a 40 amp inline fuse holder and the only ones I can find are 20 or 30 amp rated

Found this on EBAY UK.




Wow I really need to post in the morning after my coffee and with the lights turned on, as my Spelling may improve a wee bit.

Also a little different take on this issue, have you checked your Battery cables for voltage drop?  If they still are original then they can cause spurious issues with electrics.  

Gremlins tend to run amok with wonky grounds as they can use any source to find current flow from one circuit to another, sometimes even with the touch of a button.

If your battery to frame and frame to engine are still original you may want to change them as they are getting on in years, if there is any corrosion on the Battery Negative cable look at the side and the rear of the battery that is a sign of corrosion, and probably will help you with your issue and or remove future issues that you may have.  

Since you didn't specify the year of your ride, then I have a how to on the 90's cabbies, as well as a link to a pre-90 .

the CIS link is broken, but here is my 90's

Ground effects and the repair of your car. | VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum

A little off topic, but good to know about parasitic drains.
Battery Parasitic Drain diagnosis. | Volkswagen Owners Club Forum

DUBnutter said

Trying to find a 40 amp inline fuse holder and the only ones I can find are 20 or 30 amp rated

I use these guys for all things electrical https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/

I needed a 40amp in line fuse for my headlamp relay upgrade, I couldn't find 40 amp blade fuses so went with one of these https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/c-52-fuse-boxes-fuses/c-124-midi-mega-strip-fuse-holders/p-355-strip-midi-fuse-holder
And bought the relevant fuse. You need 5mm ring terminals to connect to the fuse holder (double check that though!). Just make sure you buy cable that is rated higher than the fuse you will be using, and make sure the ring terminals are the right size for the wire.

J