MTFCA Forum

Just curious where folks locate their battery cuttoff. Was hoping to see some ideas to avoid crawling under the car to switch the battery feed off. Right now I have mine in the back corner of my turtle box, but I'm going to put on a wood truck bed. Thanks.

Between your legs on the upright metal portion of the front seat. Just reach down.

Mine is in the center of that bulkhead.. right behind the Worford shifter up at the top. The holes for it were already there.. I put my Disconnect on the Negative side of the Battery, as its right in front of the Gas Tank, and I did not want Spark Issues with errant tools causing sudden excitement events.

Cap

I put my shutoff in the hole in the floor where the starter button was. I use a later-style starter button and solenoid, with the button on the seat riser. It all works great like that.

It needs to be as near the battery as is practical. Use top quality connections. It needs to be out of plain sight, but readily accessible.

My touring car has one under the back seat.

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 07, 2021 9:27 am

It needs to be as near the battery as is practical. Use top quality connections. It needs to be out of plain sight, but readily accessible.

DITTO. Mine is also on the seat riser between my legs. When the cheap starter button welded itself in the on position, I could quickly disconnect the power to the starter. I then removed the lead on the starter, switched power back on, hand crank started and merrily went on my way. Without it, there would have been untold damage to the starter and ring gear.

Main thing is , as close to the battery as possible.

My location on top of the battery meets some of the desired criteria except easy accessibility. This applies to all three Ts. Never had to have great accessibility in the 45 years I’ve been driving the cars but I can see it might be desirable.

I know my RPU makes it easy for me, but I've recently placed a post type cut-off on the battery. The piece of mind it provides is very welcome.

I faced this with my '26 build. I ended up running the (+) to the heavy cut off switch Lang's sells. Then ran another cable to the starter heel switch.
I placed the switch on the metal seat base between my legs for easy and quick reach.

On a improved car with the gas tank in the cowl makes the seat frame a safe place to install a battery cutoff switch. With the gas tank under the seat I'm concerned about this location. Even disconecting the ground is not necesarily safer. When the switch is open and there is any load applied to the circuit. If the not grounded terminal is inadvertently connected to a ground ( like the gas tank that is grounded ) that circuit will be completed.
A loose connectionat this point can cause those pesty electrons to escape in the form of sparks in a compartment that may be full of gas vaper.
Personaly I put mine on the frame ( yes it is a pain in the a## to get to ) its out of sight and safe.
Craig.

The fuel tank location is a significant issue, and any short or hot connection could lead to a nasty fire under the seat, whether gas or gas vapor was present or not. The underside of the seat is a fine mess of kindling. Locating the switch outside the underseat compartment and rigging a linkage to operate it from an accessible area is one option. Another would be to locate the switch in the seat riser panel, but enclose it in an air-tight metal box that is vented outside the underseat compartment. Yet another would be to to add appropriate fuses to the generator feed and body feed circuits and put a starter solenoid under the car near the battery, in series with the starter cable, with the start wire attached to a push button located in reach of the driver. That would prevent problems with a stuck foot starter switch and would provide some protection from theft or meddling, and would prevent inadvertently activating the starter with the engine running. The starting procedure would be: (1) Press down the original starter switch on the floor and hold it firmly. (2) Use the added starter button to crank the engine via the solenoid. The solenoid arrangment will generally provide better control of the starter than the original type foot switch by assuring positive connection and disconnection.

1925 Coupe

That's similar to the way an older Cat dozer is set up. Opening the switch kills everything.

Location on my 26 Touring.

I forgot to mention I can reach through the rear wheel well and easily switch it on and off. Switch the ground.....