On Thu, 25 Mar 1999, Max Heim wrote:
> ground connection, say through the case of the stereo or the base of the
> trunk light bulb holder or a worn speaker wire, and then you forget to
> switch on the battery cut-off one morning, and go ahead and put in the
> key and switch on the ignition, then the whole 20 amps or whatever of
> starter juice is routing through your puny 16-gauge wire, which proceeds
> to make like a glow worm while the insulation merrily sizzles (along with
> any other small-gauge wires in the circuit). And in fact, this seems to
> describe more-or-less what happened, no?
By gum... I think you've got it.
What if the battery kill switch jiggled open? It wouldn't be all the
current from the starter trying to get back to the battery through the
stereo ground... but if the lights were on, that's about 6 amps right
there. Plus whatever else was on
Doesn't explain the ignition switch meltdown, but takes care of everything
else.
Whoever mentioned the idea of the low-amp fuse across the kill switch has
my vote. Well, it won't prevent mysterious battery drains but will stop
the drive-offs and the people-turning-the-lights-on.
My anti-theft device was always the intermittant fuel pumps <g>.
Oh, and just to ruin my credibility further, I can't seem to turn the
engine with the fan belt, at least easily. The fan and whatnot cut up my
little girlie computer-programmer/guitar player hands <g>.
--
John M. Trindle | johnt@tsquare.com | Tidewater Sports Car Club
'73 MGB DSP | '69 Spitfire H Stock | '88 RX-7 C Stock
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