How do I make a master car battery shut off system?

I have a 78 Lincoln Continental. Works great still, but the battery slowly seeps out when its dormant. Instead of tearing into it I'd rather just make a master shut off in the cab of the car. Mainly to get rid of the hassle of having to pop the hood and connect and disconnect the battery to save on juice.





Solenoid?


Relay?





HV resistors, and a few HV diodes?





Anybody got any good ideas?


.|||Try one of these:


http://www.summitracing.com/parts/TAY-10鈥?/a>





This will cut off the battery as you were asking.|||If by dormant you are referring to storage longer than 2 weeks then simply pull the negative terminal when stored. if it is going dead in less than two weeks time then replace the battery.


As long as the car is driven for one hour every 2 weeks it should not run dead between starts unless there is a malfunction in the electrical system causing excessive IOD (Ignition Off Draw) or the battery is dying - my bet is on the battery, just to be sure drive it for at least one hour then stop at any parts store and have a charging and battery test performed, Autozone does it for free and most others do also.|||There's a device the go's on the battery post that has a knob you just unscrew and it unhooks the cable with no tools or mess. See here---%26gt; http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G1鈥?/a>





The only remote disconnect I can think of is a big on/off battery switch like NHRA drag cars use.


There pretty inexpensive but you would have to add some cables and mount it. See here---%26gt;


http://www.summitracing.com/search/Part-鈥?/a>|||I had an older car that did the same thing on the positive side there was a small res wire I cut this and ran two wires into the cab one from each side of the red one I cut then I put a 12 volt switch in the dash and it worked great|||First of all, you have to figure out how to make the electric switch work, when the battery is disconnected?????No power, no switch. But to give you an idea on what to use...



Solenoid, with a switch inside the cab. Turn the switch, current goes to the solenoid, which feeds the battery. Install between the battery and the starter solenoid. If you have room.

That would be a cable from battery hot, to new solenoid, cable to starter solenoid. (you still need battery current to do this)



Much like a starter relay. In fact that would probably work.

A starter solenoid is energized temporarily, to send current down the thick cable, to the starter. The ignition switch sends a small 12 volt current to the solenoid, that closes and the current goes to the starter.



Hooking up a starter solenoid so that it is on the battery hot cable, between the hot feed and the positive post, might work. Or use the negative battery cable and install the solenoid between the ground and the negative battery post, turning off the ground when the switch is off.



However, this would require that the solenoid be hot all the time while the car is running, and I am not sure it is designed to do that.



Maybe you can find a solenoid that is normally "closed" when the engine is running and not need current to close it, and then use current to open it when the car is off.



Here's one made already, but not with starter solenoids...



http://www.4wheelparts.com/Electrical/Pa鈥?/a>



ou might get by with just cutting the current to the fuse box, leaving some to operate the switch.