Solenoid killing battery overnight- need wiring advice

REDLYNER

REDLYNER

Mall Crawling Race Rig
Joined
Oct 31, 2008
Location
Mountain Island
I'll try to paint the best picture I can here:

I have to have a master kill switch for Ultra4 racing, so I had a solenoid wired up under the hood. All power accessories are wired to the solenoid, then from the solenoid to the battery. Is it wired incorrectly, is there a way to wire it so it doesn't kill the battery? It will always draw power, I just didn't realize it would be this much.

Right now I'm thinking to just bypass it for daily driving. All of the wires have a terminal end, what part is out there that I could connect these to? I don't want the connection to touch something and short out or over heat, is there like an inline terminal out there that I could bolt all of these too?
Rough picture of setup:
alh6.googleusercontent.com__IZiFAwbvs_Y_UTTBAfN0EfI_AAAAAAAADN23260ac448d1e91f271ce0f70267c491.jpg



Battery and solenoid:
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Solenoid: I need every wire on the left bolted together and every wire on the right bolted together, essentially totally bypassing the solenoid. Unless there is a way the solenoid can be wired to not dfrain my battery. I leave my jeep at the airport all of time and can't have the battery draining.
alh3.googleusercontent.com__2l_FAngsyng_UTTFCN5_FdI_AAAAAAAADOaaac4522e16fffcadf51699151a28bc2.jpg
 
If you just want to bypass for now until we can get something better just put all the the wires on one of the studs on the solenoid and leave the solenoid switch in the off position.
 
Will Carter said:
If you just want to bypass for now until we can get something better just put all the the wires on one of the studs on the solenoid and leave the solenoid switch in the off position.
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Hmmm..... I'll try that. I'll have to see if the post is long enough for the wires.
 
For super simple you could pull them off run a copper lug bolt and nut and heat shrink it.

Or a terminal strip
Or...
 
When I did my dual battery set-up, I used an isolated marine terminal...I'll look tonight to check the proper name & where I got them (plus get a better pic). The stud was very long so I could connect all my cables/lugs to one post.

terminal.jpg
 
I'd suggest not using a solenoid.

Keep anything that needs +12V constant hot (and isn't required to be shunted by the solenoid... assuming that is legal) either attached directly to the battery or to a heavy duty terminal nearby. The switched hot runs through an appropriately sized fusible link or ANL fuse, etc, through a fat, heavy duty cable to the cab, where you use any of a variety of heavy-duty battery disconnect switches to switch it on and off. Run back the way you came with a second heavy duty (appropriately sized) cable, and terminate it near the battery on a junction block. Attach all your switched-power stuff to that other j-block. Done and done.
 
shawn said:
I'd suggest not using a solenoid.

Keep anything that needs +12V constant hot (and isn't required to be shunted by the solenoid... assuming that is legal) either attached directly to the battery or to a heavy duty terminal nearby. The switched hot runs through an appropriately sized fusible link or ANL fuse, etc, through a fat, heavy duty cable to the cab, where you use any of a variety of heavy-duty battery disconnect switches to switch it on and off. Run back the way you came with a second heavy duty (appropriately sized) cable, and terminate it near the battery on a junction block. Attach all your switched-power stuff to that other j-block. Done and done.
Click to expand...
Player didn't want a big 'ol bulky switch on his dash. I tried to make it sexy and got more 12volt draw than I thought there would be.
 
I would also suggest running a switch instead of a solenoid...but, it shouldn't always be pulling power unless something is putting 12v power to the s terminal that shouldn't be. I also see multiple wires leaving the + side of the battery that aren't going to the solenoid and I can see even more wires stacked on the batt terminal of the solenoid, I would bet one of those is what is drawing the power--and it would be easy to check with an ammeter. Ideally you would have only the battery hot wire on one terminal and all others (minus memory wires) on the other terminal, then a hot to either the key in ign or to a switch and then back to the switching terminal--which is probably whats required by u4.
 
Where is the switch that turns the solenoid on and off and how is it wired? I assume it is wired to a consant 12v like directly to the battery? Unhook that.
 
It's ground activated. Switch completes ground circuit to activate. Multiple wires are for battery separation and alternator separation. You gotta break both or it doesn't cut off.
 
Switch it off when you get to the Pottery Barn?
 
You need a norm open set up. It will solve the problem. We use to run into this in the car stereo world...
 
shawn said:
Switch it off when you get to the Pottery Barn?
Click to expand...


It resets the computer every time.

Snappy- I'm on a business trip, sorry for not calling back. I'm open to anything though (that looks trick).
 
Simple.... The relay gets power to cut it on rather than to keep it off...... Let me see what I can find. What amperage is the one you have?
 
Would that satisfy the rules, though? Seems like it wouldn't to me...
 
shawn said:
Would that satisfy the rules, though? Seems like it wouldn't to me...
Click to expand...
Yeah, trying to process that as well. If no power then it can't be turned off. Thus still connected. And if you have a direct short then there's no way to turn it off...and ...and...what else?
 
No power or ground sig, then no power out. Send the grnd sig and it has power. To me it would make more sense than what you have because if it fails then it dead, if what you have now fails, it gets power.....
 
A solenoid like that is much more likely to fail in the "inactive" state than it is to fuse and stay in the "active" state.... as far as mechanical failure goes. Normally open would mean it fails open, in other words. That seems "safer" to me, only from the aspect that they want to shut everything down if there's a problem. If there's a fire that starts melting wires, you're likely to lose the ability to control that solenoid, and it's just going to default to whatever the "inactive" state is.
 
Oh, and FWIW, I just bought one of these: http://www.amazon.com/BLUE-6006-BATTERY-SWITCH-MINI/dp/B002MJBJPM/ref=pd_sbs_sg_59

I was expecting to get a big 7" square switch... didn't realize I ordered the "mini" version. The faceplate is only about 2-1/2" square and it can be mounted through a bulkhead if you cut a ~2" dia hole in the panel. Don't quote me on the ratings... but it's something like 300A continuous, 600A intermittent, and 1200A spike. The ratings are cast into the body, though. I can get them if somebody needs hard numbers.
 
After talking to Will the fix is simple and uses 2 relays and powers the radio mem and ecm mem to a fuse which is allowed...
 
I had to look up the ratings. Here they are:

300A continuous
500A for 5 mins
775A for 1 min
1500A for 10s

And the face plate is 2.875" square and mounts in a 2-5/8" dia hole.
 
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