Peter,
What is happening here is you have provided a path around the battery
cutoff. The path is a smaller wire and that accounts for why the lights
are dimmer. I would say here that I think if you operate the systems
very long in this condition, you will likely fry that small ground wire.
There is no real good way to do what you desire unless you hook the
cutoff up to the positive lead. You can cut out the major path to the
starter and ignition and still have a small wire going to the clock and
radio preset circuit connected directly to the positive battery
terminal.
Regards,
Joe Curry
Peter Zaborski wrote:
>
> This one has me stumped at present...
>
> I recently installed one of the battery cutoff switches (as seen in the
> Moss catalog for around $12). Basically you mount the switch on the neg
> post and attach the ground cable to the other end of the switch. In the
> middle is a threaded knob which when loosened, breaks the connection
> between the two halves of the switch. Very handy since I always seem to
> be disconnecting the battery for something. This way I don't have to
> remove the clamp from the post. Works just great and as a bonus,
> removing the threaded knob outright acts as a "crude" theft prevention
> device.
>
> Ok that's the background - now here's the stumper...
>
> I also have a stereo which has an electronic clock and presets for the
> radio stations stored in its memory. Of course each time the battery is
> disconnected these settings are lost. Clever me, I thought I would
> outsmart Mr. Battery switch by hooking up a ground wire from the neg
> terminal of the battery to the ground of the stereo directly.
>
> (I should mention that the stereo is wired so that it has two power
> connections - one for when the ignition is on for normal operation, and
> another connected full time to the brown terminal on the fuse box. This
> also works correctly.)
>
> Now when I disconnect the battery using the switch, it doesn't really
> disconnect. I can turn on the lights which is something I could not do
> before installing the "custom" ground wire. The lights go noticeably
> dimmer than when the switch is connected, but they do stay on
> nonetheless. Something is allowing the battery to get grounded through
> the stereo.
>
> Anyone have any ideas on what is causing this? And more importantly, how
> can I resolve this as I would definitely like to have the stereo
> isolated form the action of the switch if possible.
>
> Thanks for any insights into this little puzzler,
>
> Peter Zaborski
> 76 TR6 (CF58310 UO)
> Calgary AB Canada
--
"If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort."
-- Dave Weinbaum in National Enquirer
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