Hitchcocks Forum

I had all electrical power to my Electra X. I had checked fuses visually and junction boxes etc to no avail. Today I removed the original glass 15 amp fuse ready to replace with a spade fuse. By passing the fuse immediately gave the bike power. The fuse looked like it was making good contact and to be in good condition. I will now replace all glass fuses with spade types which also see more watertight.

There have been quite a few recommendations to do this, glad you found the source of the trouble.

A.

I usually fit blade fuses if only because they are more universally available in filling stations.

Not an Enfield, but I had a Land Rover with glass fuses and had all sorts of problems due to bad connections, I cleaned up the connectors, replaced the fuses and the problem s persisted, I changed to spade fuses and all is well.

vibration can cause intermittent power loss across a glass fuse if the spring is weak or corroded in an inline application. My MGB has glass fuses mounted in clips that are difficult to clean. Spade fuses are easier to see if they are blown (no cap to hide an intermittent break. That type of failure really drives an electronic ignition nuts...

spade fuses all the way

Here I go!

50+ years riding & driving with glass fuses, spade fuses, wire fuses etc etc and never once have had a problem. Mind you I took care to maintain the bikes and vehicles – with the regular spray application of something good to protect from corrosion.

IMHO I think the majority of these ‘problems’ and ‘failures’ are down to poor or non-existent maintenance of contacts etc.

IMHO Spade type fuses are inherently much better than glass ones mainly because they do not rely on a fairly weak spring to maintain contact.

I used to have an MZ that used to play up in wet weather, ripping out the old style fuses and replacing them with blade fuses made all of the electrical problems go away.

IMHO I have been pleased to have five MZ 250s - and never a problem with fuses. The one fuse may well be 'inherently better' than the other - but the other - the glass fuse - has been utilized in innumerable applications with satisfactory service. The option that is not necessarily 'the best' need not be considered as 'useless'.

I'd imagine the original communist-era bakelite-ish fuse holder would be more likely to be the issue on an MZ than the fuse system itself. I know the one on my Jawa eventually crumbled to dust. Causing some highly entertaining intermittent backfiring followed by a dead bike as I was riding it through Edinburgh town centre. Problem rapidly diagnosed and repaired using a 99p blade fuse holder (fuse included) from a nearby filling station.