I was driving my 85 Iroc today when it just died. Luckily I was 1 block from home. I did some trouble shooting and found the fusible link wire that comes off the starter and powers the ignition/interior power had melted. This wire is also the one that has a red lead take off that plugs into a connector beside the hvac box.

Is there any particular reason why it melted other than the car is 27 years old?

There are the the 3 wires that run through a metal heat pipe shield and attach to the starter. Could this pipe have touched the header and got hot enough to melt the wire?

 

Yes, I don't know for sure but sounds likely. Replace wires and make sure the metal tube cannot touch the headers and see what happens.

 

Is there a specific GM replacement fusible link or will any link of the same gauge work?

 

10 gauge wire works, nope ya cant replace it with a new one unless ya run a whi=ole new wire, and i beleive it just got old, hell i dont have headers and mine did it, twice cuz i tried with smaller wire first time, but i wrapped it in some heat insulating steel tape and a ton of electrical tape to keep the loom together, have fun pulling the whole harness up from behind the engine throught that heat sheild after you take of the starter to get too it though, real pleasure lol, really goodluck though i had a hell of a time, almost wanted to pull the engine and do it, i recommend alot of wd-40 just to clean the parts your dealing with under car and maybe heat wrap the headers, or make a heat shield out of foil for the starter, and the whole loom of 3 fusible links, i did, its holding up well

 

you install a fusible link 4 wire sizes smaller than the wire you are protecting
Read
http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/fusible-link.shtml

Links are designed to burnout and break the wire before you car burns to the ground
so I would be identifying the reason why it blew ( usually a big short to ground or current overload )
before replacing the fusible link where it will just blow again

 

You can get a cloth wrap for spark plug wires that I have used for starter wires around headers. I think it is made out of asbestous or something good because it works very well. Mine was old and I took #4 audio wire and made myself a good wire and routed it out of the way. You can take a piece of 3/8 copper tubing and put it on the wire and beat it flat with a large hammer and then drill it to fit the post and your done. I use the wrap and lots of wire ties. I think the wrap is made for spark plugs right at the header.

 

Got it all fixed. One of the wires going through the metal loom was frayed and must of arced out and blew the link. Picked up a new fusible link from the parts store and took me all of 10 minutes to fix.

 

I have had the same problem, I hope this fixes mine. Thanks for the info.

 

I have seen alot of people with Fuseable link issues on here and didn't know what we were talking about.. It is a great protection scheme that is used to save the car from a total meltdown.. It is indeed a pain in the butt to fix them though.

 

right, when it happened to me i was glad it wasn't a more serious problem, but i was pissed at 11 o clock that night still fighting to get the whole loom back into the heat shield and re attatch it to the starter all in all i can say though once its fixed (and fixed well) it wont break again for awhile