O death, where is thy sting?

[AlfaNeely@xxxxxxx]

Tess,
       I have thought the place to mount a disconnect or battery kill switch 
would be where the negative battery cable bolts to the sheet metal right 
behind the battery.  However, that would require opening the trunk to disconnect 
the battery.  No bid deal if you are going to park the car for a while.  A bit 
inconvenient to use it as an anti theft device anytime you park.
       In this case, I was thinking of the racing type heavy switch.  I am 
not sure what type you bought.  You could also mount a racing type kill switch 
in the package shelf area behind the seat.  The positive cable passes through 
there.  You would have to have the cable cut and a couple of terminal ends 
installed.
       If you get the battery master kill switch with four outlets, the extra 
two terminals can be used to disconnect the power to the electric fuel pump 
directly under the rear package tray.  You do not want to put in a battery 
disconnect unless you provide some way to kill the engine.  Otherwise the 
alternator can continue to power the engine with the battery disconnected.  Then the 
alternator can increase the voltage and ruin things electrical.
       On the question of why the new battery spun the engine so rapidly at 
first and less so later, I have no idea.  I hope the new battery is not going 
dead already.

Ciao,
Russ Neely
Oklahoma City


In a message dated 6/22/2003 7:36:48 PM Central Daylight Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:

> Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 22:52:01 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Tessie McMillan <tessmc@domain.elided>
> Subject: O death, where is thy sting?
> 
> Sorry for the subject line, I was trying to come up with nifty phrases 
> that related to dead batteries.
> 
> I installed a new battery in Olive Oil today. I bought a kill switch with 
> the battery, but was not able to figure out a good way to install it, 
> since there did not seem to be much room.
> 
> Those of you who have a Series 3 spider still with the trunk upholstery 
> intact, how could you imagine installing the kill switch? It is supposed 
> to go on the negative terminal, but if I do this, it would be extremely 
> difficult to use -- sort of pointless, since I'd have to perform the 
> equivalent of disconnecting the negative lead just to get at the kill 
> switch &:-).  Since this new battery is a dry cell, I also tried mounting 
> the battery sideways, but then it did not fit on the battery shelf and was 
> unstable.
> 
> For now I'm minus a kill switch. Here's another question, though. The new 
> battery has 1050 amps for starting; my previous battery had 500 or so. 
> When I first started the car with the new battery, the car turned over so 
> fast, it was almost before I returned the key from the starting position. 
> None of that 'si si si si si si' stuff; the starter just said "si si BOOM" 
> and the car was running. In getting Olive cleaned up, moving her, checking 
> the oil, etc., I started her about four times total, and each time it 
> was very fast, very surprising. Then I took the car out for a long drive, 
> parked, went for a walk along the beach, and had dinner. When I came back 
> to the car and started it, she had gone back to her normal "si si si si 
> si BOOM" style of starting. Should I be worried about this? 
> 
> Tess
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