I'm working on putting a small sealed battery in my pass side storage compartment. In preperation I have a metal fab shop making up a battery tray and a switch panel for the rear of the car. I know for NHRA and such I need a kill switch in an easy access location. I didn't want to drill holes in the car that you can see, so by ditching the spare and cutting out some of the metal behind the license plate area I'll have a nice hidden area for the panel. From there I'll attach my recessed switch panel and have the switch and charging terminal mounted. This way all I have to do is remove my license plate at the track and I'm good to go and don't have to worry about some *** shorting out the charging terminals or switching the car off.

My question is for those you that have kill switches, how'd you wire them up. I was going to use a summit switch ($19.95) but it's only rated for 20A. But then I got to thinking, what if I just kill the ECU? I think the rules state that the car must be shut down by this switch. If I were to wire it to shut all battery power, I'd think I would need a much higher amp switch and a relay system to kill the alternator too. However, by killing just the ecu, I *think* I can keep the alarm, radio and other accessory items powered. I would also assume that if I kill the ecu, the fuel pump and ignition would die out as well. Think this will work? Thanks.

 

I may be misreading some of your question, but I think for NHRA legality, you have to kill the entire car. I would check w/ your local track's safety inspectors for sure, but I believe the idea is that you do have to kill the fuel pump, and ignition -- but also it should kill any other electrical activity in the car. The main idea is that if your car rolls in an accident or something, fuel spills out, etc. then there should be a way to kill the elec. so no shorts can occur and ignite any fuel... I worked at a drag strip locally for about 5 years, and I'm pretty sure it's more than just a mechanism to turn off the car... Like I said though, don't take my word -- check w/ your local track or even better, pick up an NHRA rule book and look it up. Your track (if NHRA sanctioned) should have them for sale and at the very least will let you read the rulebook.

For your switch questions, you might check on Summit for a relocation kit -- it seems like they used to have a full kit that had the switch, box, and everything. At the very least it should have some kind of indication as to what amperage of switch is used -- maybe this is the one you already looked up.

Hope that helps a little.

 

you need to kill both the battery and the alternator. so you need to run fat wire from the alternater back to a swtich (and remove the stock wire). then back up to the fuse block / starter. then wire teh battery to the switch. you can buy battery kill switches. they should take 200 amps or so. I'm sure they will come with instructions.

this means that your charging system wire is now 30' long instead of 2' long...

 

That's kinda why I just want to kill the ecu. The last thing I need is charging wires running all over the car. That'll just create unneeded weight and possible interference with the radio and such. I've looked, the only other switches they sell are for nitro cars and such that are rated at 200-300 continuous or 2000 A for 4 seconds. Those cost about 70 bucks or so.