The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Battery disconnect switch recommendation?

Any of you use a battery disconnect switch?

I would suppose this is easier than removing the terminal from the batt post each time I need to disconnect power.

Any particular brand or style to look for or to avoid?

Do you use it on the POS or NEG side?

Thanks!

Dave

Dave,
I have used one for a few years. It's one of those cheap green ones you find a your local swap meet for a couple bucks. Mine is attached to the neg term.

The general rule of thumb I have seen is to always attach it to the Negative terminal. I bought mine from a local Parts Plus for about 7 bucks. It has a knob on top that you just twist to disconnect the cable. Works well.

Just curious...are you doing this for anti-theft reasons or for ease in working on th eelectrical stuff?

If you are doing it for security reasons...Caterpillar makes a good disconnect switch that has a key which opens/closes the circuit. Problem is they don't give it away...~$25-30.00 You could also try www.delcity.net they have good products and might sell a model like Cats'. However, if you are doing for servicing purposes, I would just go the route everyone else has listed. Good luck.

Check out the latest Rod & Custom magazine. They have an article (more like an infomercial)on the installation of one. Made by Painless. Mine is Moroso and bolted to the valance under my seat.

Shane 53 - that del city site is pretty neat.. all kinds of stuff on there.

-W

Woogeroo,

Yeah, they do have some cool stuff, prices are pretty decent and can be downright cheap if you buy in bulk. The nice thing is to get one of there free catalogs. They have lots of great pictures and it gives you a visual reference for some electrical parts even if you don't end of buying from them.

I've got one on my '77 Vette, but I rarely use it. The instructions with it said to put it on the positive terminal, so that's where it is.

I think I have the ultimate battery disconnect (used for security mainly). It's a Cole-hersee 24200 I think? solenoid. It's a latching solenoid, so you hit the pwr/gnd contacts momentarily and it switches on, hit it again and it switches off (using no power while not switching). You can trigger it w/ a remote, small switch somewhere, etc.

I have the standard twist off. Just yesterday I had a dead cell in my old battery and bought an Optima Red Top Gell Cell, heard lots about them thought I'd give them a try.

I asked the battery man (bought batt. from a dedicated battery-only store), "Do I have my disconnect on the correct pole?", he said, "Yes, the POSITIVE pole is the proper pole for a disconnect such as yours, you always want to keep the vehicle grounded."

In the Corvette, I use a keyed disconnect switch for security purposes, and since the glove box is right next to the battery box, the switch is hidden inside there and the red plastic key, which is attached to a removable keychain on my regular keys, has to be inserted and turned before I can start the car. I also have my electric fuel pump wired to an on/off toggle switch which is hidden under the ashtray.

On my Firebird, I have one of those battery post-mounted switches which you unscrew the knob to disconnect the battery and those work well too. For ease of installation and simple disconnection, they're probably the best. And yes, you mount them on the negative post.

I've always assumed that this is because electrons actually travel from negative to positive. Our system of labelling is actually backwards, from an engineering point of view.