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Incab battery shut off switch

Speed_racer

NAXJA Forum User
I have an unknown battery draw, which is KILLING my battery over and over.

Got the battery tested, its fine, ran the jeep for 40 minutes with negative terminal yanked off of the battery, PERFECT, so alternators fine...

So, until I can get in there with the test light, and start yanking fuses, someone plz tell me how to run an in cab battery shutoff switch.. thx guys!!
 
It's "simple," but not "easy."

You need to totally isolate the battery positive terminal from the electrical system. Therefore, you need to remove the cable from the positive terminal, and replace it with a very long cable that runs to your shut-off switch. This needs to be a heavy cable, much larger than the OEM cable because you're making the length a lot longer. Then run another new cable from the shutoff switch back to the terminal in the engine compartment load center and you're done.
 
with the length were talking about here id say 2 gauge cable, and i would not worry about shielded or unshielded.

Mike
 
Some racing houses also have shutoff switches (check Jeg's and Summit) with a longish operating rod to cut down the length of the cable. Also, remember that having the shutoff switch will kill any programming or memory that exists (radio? ECM?) every time you kill the power.

And, with the length you'd need for a short-handled switch, 2 gage is a bare minimum. Overkill in electrics is not a bad thing, good 2.0 cable can be had for a reasonable price at a welding supply house. Terminals are fairly priced (usually) and a hammer-powered crimper is good for $20-30 as well.

5-90
 
Seems to me that it would be alot easier to locate your leak than to go through the work of installing an incab switch.

Pull each fuse at the main box, and put a current meter on the contacts at each fuse holder, and look for excessive current drain.
 
With a multimeter (or even an indicator light) between the neg cable and neg post, you should be able to determine, in about 10 mins, which fused circuit is faulty.

Until you can tear into that wiring, you can simply remove the fuse from the offending circuit.
Maybe super-glue the fuse puller to that fuse, to make removal/installation simpler.

An old farmer once told me "The most permanent fix is a temporary repair." :D
 
You could also wire a high-capacity relay in-line right after the pos cable.

Mount it on the inner fender, hardwire the low power side to the batt pos (with an in-line fuse), and run a 16 ga wire to an in-cab switch.

This only isolates the power that would normally go straight to the fuse box or the ignition switch.

I think there are also circuits coming off the starter motor, fed by the pos cable from batt to starter.
 
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