Close-up of green wires and a connector marked with purple ink

Having more wires attached directly to the fuse terminal allows me to safely run a larger fuse, without putting any additional current thru the single original wire; less, in fact, because I've split its load onto this new wire. The only limit to this technique is the terminal's capacity - if the terminal can handle a 25A fuse, then it's only safe to pull 25A through it. Since this circuit originally had a 25A fuse, it's not safe to increase the fuse size. But it IS safe to increase the total load because the fuse will protect the terminals. But it can't protect the individual wires, so each one's load must not be allowed to exceed that specific wire's capacity (e.g.: having 5 wires, each capable of carrying 10A is fine, as long as none is actually loaded with 15A - that wouldn't burn the 25A fuse, but it would burn that 10A-capacity wire).

If the original fuse had been smaller, it would be safe to increase its size up to 25A (Ford used some 30A fuses in this block, but they're known to melt their terminals & the plastic block) using this technique because the extra load is NOT applied to the original wire.

Other acceptable ways to splice wires include:

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Owner caption January 2012 · Photo 4191 of 5000