That might have been a problem....

[MarcusOReallyus]

Looking for an electrical gremlin today I found a very interesting memento from a previous owner (which was the U.S. Army). Take a look at one of my fusible links:



Looks like someone wasn't clear on the concept. Also had no clue how to do a proper crimp. When I flexed it a bit, bits of corrosion fall out of the butt splice.

But wait! It gets worse! Take a gander at the other end:



Again, a bit of corrosion, and a very sloppy crimp, but look more closely. What do you see?

 

[antennaclimber]

Ohhh yes, the one looks like the old "crimp it with a hammer" trick.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Yeah, but take a close look at what was crimped. Oy.

 

[porkysplace]

What you don't think crimping just the plastic ends makes a good contact ?

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Oh, the metal barrel was crimped....

To standard copper wire.

Yeah, some idiot replaced a fusible link with copper wire. He cut the link on the fusible side of the black plastic connector, then added about 6" of 14 ga copper wire in its place.

I'm sure glad I never had any short downstream of that!