i was playing around under my kick panel today to finally get acquainted with the layout of my fuse box and panel. while tinking, i noticed that the 6th blade fuse in the middle row of the kick panel had a wire with a piece of copper that wraps itself around one prong on the fuse, so that it is tied into the circuit with that fuse. this particular fuse is 15 amps. is this normal, or is this likely part of my k40 3000swl system? the reason i ask this is because recently my radar went out completely and i wanted to see if the fuse might have been what killed it. the fuse is still good; does anybody have any suggestions as to what may have caused my sudden lights-out problem with my k40? it has two little lights in my instrument panel, and the connections up there are OK. im a technician, so im not afraid to dive in to fix a problem, but ive never worked on a radar system like this and would like to see if anybody more familiar with its inner workings can help me. admins, feel free to split this into two threads if you feel its necessary.

 

K40 eh. Got one too. I installed it myself though. Check your ground. Sounds like it is undone.

 

The wire around the fuse is a typical aftermarket trick. Not likely to be factory, prob done by an installer.

 

yea, it was definitely aftermarket. the problem here is, i dont know where the ground wiring usually runs with these systems. i know where the wires connect to the lights in my instrument panel as ive taken them off before, and now it appears i know where at least the positive wiring begins. everything in between i am clueless about, and want to seek out help before playing with a $1500 system or paying someone several hundred to fix something that i may be able to. awj, where should i look for the grounding wire? btw thanks for the quick responses

 

Trace the wire in question back and see where it goes.
I had a phone system in my car and the power was done in the manner you described (wire wrapped around one prong of the fuse)
This was kinda odd since I though the phone was factory installed.