65 B Body fuseblock. Questions and rusted terminal repair by electrolysis.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

65 B Body fuseblock. Questions and rusted terminal repair by electrolysis.

cranks38 · Addicted!

RE: 65 B Body fuseblock. Repair question.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Thanks. Hmmm... riveted. Yes, that would take a little (too much) work.

Well, I suppose I could try to de-oxidize the contacts somehow. Then maybe a little touch of copper paste on them when the fuses go back in?

cranks38 · Addicted!

No, no. The buss bars (on the left of the picture) are "barbed" and will push out of the block like all the terminals. It the three on the right that you'd have to get creative with!

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I'll start poking around on it and see what comes about. Thanks again!

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I had to change a couple of a Grande Parisienne a few years back. I had a fuse block for parts with good terminals. Rather than trying to connect right at the block, I removed the terminal with about 6" of wire still attached and did a solder connection 6" from the block, then sealed up the solder repair with heat shrink.

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

You guys have me a bit confused. cdnpont posted a photo of what I presume is the face of a 65 fuse block. cranks38 posted a photo of the rear of a fuse block, but is that from a 69 or a 65? And when cranks38 mentions "on the left of the picture", and then "it's the three on the right", which picture is he referring to?

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Heres the inside back of the 65 block,

Purple wire ending on the left image corresponds to the connector below the "Pass" script on the right image.

It would be all but impossible to try to remove and fit better lugs into another block. Like you said Carl. It would be better to just cut and solder along the wire runs.

The 69 block I have shares little if no parts with the 65.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

And there is nothing wrong with a good soldered connection sealed with heat shrink. Makes the job all that much simpler.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Silly thought but would sandblasting do anything? Of course you'd have to protect the lettering.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I think I'll try to take the lugs out of the block one at a time, and try to somehow carefully derust just the points of fuse contact. Not the wire connection. Treat them in some way to preserve them.

I can say that before disassembly, all systems did actually work on this car. How well? Probably not very..

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

A light blast would probably do perfect Carl.

Question; the lugs on the left look brass, and yet appear rusted in the face out view. How? Are they 2 part?

beaumontguru · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

This is just my advice, but everyone has different opinions,

The clips that hold the fuses are obviously steel, but they had a thin layer of tin or nickel plate that flaked off. I have had good success with dipping the whole block assembly in either Evaporust or Metal Rescue overnight or longer, it will not harm anything, but it will take off all the rust from the terminals, some of the plating may then be visible, and still flaky, lightly brush with a wire brush to get them even cleaner than the evaporust did, then coat everything with a good thick layer of di-electric grease, reinstall the fuses, and you are good for 30 more years, my advice is to do this to all teh original parts, and they will be just fine, repro junk and cutting up the wires and crimping or replacing stuff is too much work, and you will always be driving and wondering if that solder joint is coming apart or if that crimp will hold.

I guess i am saying if the rusty terminals are the only thing wrong, just fix the rusty terminals and leave the rest be.

of course, if you find the clips to be rusted to the point of breaking, that is a different story, but i have not run accross any that bad unless the car was literally underwater.

Islander · Addicted!

beaumontguru wrote:
This is just my advice, but everyone has different opinions,
The clips that hold the fuses are obviously steel, but they had a thin layer of tin or nickel plate that flaked off. I have had good success with dipping the whole block assembly in either Evaporust or Metal Rescue overnight or longer, it will not harm anything, but it will take off all the rust from the terminals, some of the plating may then be visible, and still flaky, lightly brush with a wire brush to get them even cleaner than the evaporust did, then coat everything with a good thick layer of di-electric grease, reinstall the fuses, and you are good for 30 more years, my advice is to do this to all teh original parts, and they will be just fine, repro junk and cutting up the wires and crimping or replacing stuff is too much work, and you will always be driving and wondering if that solder joint is coming apart or if that crimp will hold.
I guess i am saying if the rusty terminals are the only thing wrong, just fix the rusty terminals and leave the rest be.
of course, if you find the clips to be rusted to the point of breaking, that is a different story, but i have not run accross any that bad unless the car was literally underwater.

Instead of a wire brush, Google fibreglass brush, they have lots of uses, I have read cleaning of watch parts, I have used them to clean (polish) parts of a brass model to be soldered together. Alternatively you could use a Dremel Tool with a wire wheel on slow speed?

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Too bad I didn't know you had such a bad fuse block, I could have maybe grabbed the underdash harness from the 65 Parisienne that was at the local Pick-n-Pull this winter.

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

beaumontguru wrote:
This is just my advice, but everyone has different opinions,
The clips that hold the fuses are obviously steel, but they had a thin layer of tin or nickel plate that flaked off. I have had good success with dipping the whole block assembly in either Evaporust or Metal Rescue overnight or longer, it will not harm anything, but it will take off all the rust from the terminals, some of the plating may then be visible, and still flaky, lightly brush with a wire brush to get them even cleaner than the Evaporust did, then coat everything with a good thick layer of dielectric grease, reinstall the fuses, and you are good for 30 more years, my advice is to do this to all the original parts, and they will be just fine, repro junk and cutting up the wires and crimping or replacing stuff is too much work, and you will always be driving and wondering if that solder joint is coming apart or if that crimp will hold.
I guess i am saying if the rusty terminals are the only thing wrong, just fix the rusty terminals and leave the rest be.
of course, if you find the clips to be rusted to the point of breaking, that is a different story, but i have not run across any that bad unless the car was literally underwater.

I would go this route. I was going to suggest a soaking in CLR even. They sell small brass brushes at the Dollar Store. They work very good.

1965CS · Guru

Just my but these being rusty seems to be common. Having done it, you can remove them individually and meticulously clean each contact.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Common is right. I think any car that had leaked, and sat for a long period wet inside would suffer the same. Most B Bodies of this gen that sat extended outside eventually leaked.

Maybe even any car in high humidity and no leaks would have some rust here as well.

Looks like about 1/2 of the lugs can be detached from the wire (to the right). That will make it easier to treat those. The others will have to be pushed out with the wires on. A long time ago I did some work on Packard connectors with the same crimped on wires. And I was able to pick open the crimps, add new wire, re crimp and solder them. But they were brass. The ones crimped on (to the left) look like steel.

I'll try some removal today. Thanks for all the suggestions!

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Decided to try rust removal by electrolysis.

Small mason jar topped up with hot tap water, 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Stirred.

Old train transformer. Set to 1 - 1.2 volts read off a meter. Negative to the fuse lug (cathode), positive to a clean screw driver bit (anode).

Place in jar away from each other.

Turn on, bubbles visible on anode and cathode.

15 minutes and the lug was black. Driver bit and water were brown Cleaned it off, and it was silver! A little buzz with the Dremel wire wheel, and back in for another 5.

I'm currently attempting to copper plate the lug. I'll post better pictures of it before and after the initial cleaning. It's dramatically better!

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Nice work Mark!

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Well, the plating was a failure. My solution wasn't right.

But the electrolytic cleaning went well. Here's a terminal after cleaning off the black gunk. Still pitted, but no rust!

You can still see traces of the old plating. I'll just use some copper paste when the fuses go back in.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

That will be perfect. By the time it gives trouble again it won't be your issue!

cranks38 · Addicted!

Round of applause!

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

The result. Would have liked to re plate, but it's all good now. I'm happy with the result. Should improve the conduction.

Unfortunately the lettering on the block washed away when I cleaned it. Oh well...

Any brown you see on the fuse contacts is the copper paste. Used a little on the push on connectors as well. Also used Deoxit on the riveted bus section to chase out any water.

ARCADIAN · Poncho Master!

Wow great work Mark. Fantastic results!