BirdToTheBone

Gentlemen, I am adding two accessories to my car: a license plate flipper and a squirt gun. Yes, I know this is silly, illegal, ridiculous, et cetera... I've seen guys here do weirder things. Anyway, when it came time to wire both of them to my fuse block I came up with a bit of a problem. The plate flipper says it needs a 25A fuse while the water pump also needs a 25A. It sounds easy, like I could just wire them up to the ACC 25A fuse and be done with it, right? Here's where my question comes in: I need to use both of them at the same time. The flipper opens to reveal the squirt gun's nozzle. Will using both accessories at the same time exceed the amperage and blow the fuse? If so, what do I do to prevent this?

I have included a highly simplified version of the wiring diagram I drew up. The only other thing I can think to let you know is that the motors for the plate flipper do not just run for a second and shut off... they stay on and hold the plate in position. When they shut off, a spring pops it back into place. This is important to know because the plate flipper motors and the squirt gun's water pump will be running at the same time for as long as I'm spraying water. Thanks for your help!

EDIT: It occurred to me that some of you may be wondering about why I say my ACC fuse is 25A when all of yours are 20A. This question is regarding my fourth-gen Firebird, not the third-gen I signed up here for. Not that it matters, but I just figured I'd save a few questions.

kcb37

Not sure. I would assume you would have problems.
A thought thought, would be to run a wire from the battery, to a switch, to a relay. Off the switch I would run the plate. With another wire off the battery, using the relay as a switch for the squirt gun. Then both would come on, with one switch and you could put an inline fuse on both.

92RS_Ttop

iTrader: (3)

You would almost certainly blow the fuse every time. Especially if the car was running at the time. A better way to do it would be the way kcb37 described. Personally, if it was mine, I would wire 1 switch to control 2 relays. 1 relay would activate the plate flipper, the 2nd relay would activate the water pump. Then run 2 wires straight off the battery, each going to a fuse. From the fuse run each wire to the relays and then from the relays to your plate flipper and water pump.

BirdToTheBone

I don't really like the idea of running so many thick wires the whole length of the car... I don't think my floor trim can conceal more than one big one. I've already got one that goes back to my amp that runs right by the place they'd need to go... can I hook a distribution center (or second fuse box) to the amp wire and run all three devices off it as long as they're all individually fused?

I guess I should also have mentioned that I want the plate flipper to be able to flip independently of the squirt gun's squirting but not vice versa. I said the diagram was simplified... one of the things I left out is a relay that prevents me from using the pump when the plate isn't flipped. But this other stuff isn't the problem I'm having, it's getting fused power to begin with, so I left it out.

92RS_Ttop

iTrader: (3)

You could get away with only running one more thick power wire back from the battery, just split it to each relay and have the fuse after the splits. You might be able to run it off the amp power wire. What gauge is it and whats the wattage and fuse size of the amp?

BirdToTheBone

I've got 8 gauge wire with a 40A fuse running to a 600 watt amp. The amp's specifications say its "current drain at rated output" is 25A and it has two 25A fuses plugged into the back of it that protect God knows what. Hope any of that helps. I may end up running the one wire but I really don't want to.

BirdToTheBone

I noticed that my wipers have their own 25A fuse in the fuse box. I don't think I'll ever need to use the wipers and my squirt gun at the same time, so I was thinking maybe I should find a way to wire the pump to use the wiper fuse and keep the plate flipper on the ACC circuit. I started inspecting the back of a fuse box I have lying around and I found it doesn't have a nice little easy input on the back for the wiper circuit like it does for the ACC and IGN circuits, but it does have something else that may help me. I have included a diagram to help explain it. I apologize if you already know enough about the back of a fuse box to answer!

The brown wire is power. The thing with points A and B is a metal connector that takes the power and distributes it to the two fuses for the wiper system and another system I haven't determined yet. The dark gray lines are not wires, they're part of the metal connector that I couldn't figure out how to draw gracefully. Point A is a part of the metal connector that was a loop that has been pinched around the brown power wire to secure it. Point B is a similar pinchable metal loop but it doesn't have a wire in it. I want to know if I can put the wire to the squirt gun pump into Point B, secure it by pinching the loop, and put an inline fuse between Point B and the pump. Well, actually, I know I CAN do this... I really want to know if this'll keep everything electrically safe...

BirdToTheBone

I found a better water pump for the squirt gun. It says it only takes 1.3A and needs a 2.5A fuse. I'm pretty sure it'd be okay to run it and the plate flipper off of the same 25A ACC fuse at the same time without constantly blowing it up. If I'm wrong, feel free to say so before I burn this mother to the ground.