Need help on wiring a Kill switch

[bruceybonus]

Luckily the siggy is running fine at the mo, but I could do with a little help on my other beastie



I've been having a chronic battery draining problem and i'm having trouble finding the cause so I've decided to try to fit a kill switch for the battery whilst I try to find out the problem.

I'm wondering , do I fit it on the + side or the negative side of the battery? would it make any difference, I'm guessing either way it's cutting the circuit, which would you recommend as the quickest and easiest way of doing it?

there are 2 feeds coming off the batt on the + , one goes to the alternator and the other to the fuse box, could it fit this on just the fuesbox feed?

any help would be much appreciated

[Ste]

Remember that the 'kill' switch would have to be rated for the max current it will carry. If there is only one wire for the earth, then the switch would have to be able to handle starter cranking currents = NOT GOOD.

I guess that the 2 wires from + are main starter wire (heavy wire? - via alternator), and power for everything else.
If you are sure that the starter motor or alternator isn't draining the battery (unlikely), then the other one from the battery is prob the best to fit such a device. Have you searched Ebay for those quick circuit breaker devices? They will do starting currents too. To completely break the circuit, just remove the fuse in the device. eg Here which is rated for up to 500 Amps - should be high enough for starter cranking current.

[Big-Pete]

If you fit the kill switch to the battery Negative then you will still run the risk of having parallel earths (ie: a local earth from say the lights, radio, instrument cluster etc..) which may still allow the batttery to drain if the faulty circuit has a local earth.. if you want to kill the whole car you'll need to cut the Live, a Race and Rally type kill switch will be fine as this is what they are designed to do.. On our Range rover that was just used for offroading the kill switch killed the whole car.. We took both battery lives into the switch no problem..

[fields]

Google Dis-car-nect, I used one on a Discovery with no problems and at about £15 not too expensive

[jaxouk]

have you tried getting a new battery?

[steve1975l]

I would try and find the problem. Have you tried testing the battery and alternator? Does it have an aftermarket stereo or alarm?

[chrisgettings]

what about here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Heavy-Duty-Bat...ayphotohosting

its not the best but will do the job and its cheap to

[bruceybonus]

Hmm, I can see a drain from one of the circuits - but i dont know what is on that circuit, not much help from tha manual., but it only happens when it's been raining, I'm not sure exactly where it is on that circuit, the switch is intended to give me a little more time to find the fault... the battery is brand new and the switch can handle up to 500amps which should be more than enough. I have feeling it may be the elec aerial, but not sure, I can head a ticking noise eveynow and again which corresponds with a jump in drain... constant 3a and spikes to 6a every 60 secs or so, so it could be a relay of some kind..

[Ste]

Try disconnecting the aerial and see if the drain is eliminated.

[bruceybonus]

lol,.. easier said than done!... its an in the wing jobby