Kill Switch

[Pro3racer]

I have my battery relocated to my trunk, and my local track has the rule of needed a kill switch for the battery mounted outside the car(no big deal). My question is, can i just run the switch in-line with the positive cable, or do i absolutlely need to find the alternator wire and run that in too. I am really wondering if the car can run on just the alternator at idle, i doubt it, but it will save me some money and headaches of having to run wire again. Thanks

 

[tom04841]

The alternator IS what runs the car. All the battery is for is basically starting it. Once started, you can actually remove the battery and the car will run fine unless the alternator is bad.

 

[Pro3racer]

Only reason i say that is that i've heard it being done before. I've seen cars die before because the battery being dead and the alternator not being able to keep up. Guess i'll just have to try it, maybe i'll wire in a little fuel pump power line to it too, that'll kill the car..actually..that will work

 

[Eclipsethis90]

The alternator IS what runs the car. All the battery is for is basically starting it. Once started, you can actually remove the battery and the car will run fine unless the alternator is bad.

Exactly, you should be able run without a battery once the car was started and you had a proper ground. Good way to see if your alternator is up to snuff. I know, i did it with my beater VW.

 

[Pro3racer]

I am willing to bet my alternator is in perfect condition, so if i don't get lucky and have the kill switch kill the car on its own, i'll just sneak the fuel pump wire in there.

 

[jstiltner]

I wouldent reccomend unhooking your battery to test your alt. the alternator uses the battery to help regulate the voltage and keep it smooth. On the question of battery cutoffs you should get the type that has the alternator shutoff with it as previously stated if you only cut your battery your car will keep running and keep burning as the case may be, so yea you gotta run wires all the way from the alt back to the cutoff switch to positively kill the car and all voltage. I dident think about this and bought the flameing river battery cutoff without the alt. option, well its for sale now after I found out that part. I suppose you could attach the alt directly to the battery then have the switch going to the rest of the car. Someone else may have an opinion on that one.

 

[ep3_04]

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[nightspeed87]

i did a fuel pump kill switch instead of battery because doesnt the ecu reset itself everytime the batters unplugged for a certain amount of time??? Before when I used to unplug my batter the car would idle funny and act crazy sometimes and I didnt want to deal with that everytime I got in the car and flipped the switch back up..

 

[slipstream808]

Yup, the ECU will lost its learned settings and revert to "stock". Fuel pump switch will kill the motor and the fuel delivery (both important) but it wont kill the electricity. Still could be dangerous.