Dummy of the Month, ruined my relay board! Options

[Ian Stott]

Should have talked to my mechanic, but noooo I figured I'll just unplug the things plugged into the relay board, clean everything all up and reinstall it, well lots of smoke, evacuate the house, move cars out of the driveway to get the teener outside so I don't lose the house as well! Could see flames and of course the wife is now hysterical saying helpful things at the top of her lungs like "do something" get the battery unhooked and blow out the flames which were melted burning pieces of the relay board. Car is okay, smoke has cleared, only the relay board is damaged and now I can't get the last plug unplugged as it seems to be melted into the board, help me please! Anyway my momma said there would be days like this. Thought I would share my experience with everyone, I think it takes me out of the loop of guys you ask for help! Maybe we should have a dummy of the month same as car of the month, not trying to get the misery loves company bandwagon afloat but please tell me I'm not the only one who has fuched up!

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

[swl]

What Tom said!
There was a thread recently discussing the merits of a master fuse on the battery. Here is some good supporting evidence.

There are two unfused leads directly from the battery to the relay board - pins 14 and 12 (don't know why 2 of them - need to check the diagram) The relay board ground is pin 10 - right beside the unfused supply. Hopefully whatever shorted was on the board and not the harness. There is a cover on the plug - slide it off and see how bad the damage is. I shudder to think about the amount of work it would take to repair that plug if there is significant damage to the wires. Might not be too bad to repair the power supply and ground. Anything else though...

hear is a good diagram of the relay board with the leads identified.