Exterior Battery hookups?!??!?!?!

Stingray74CC · 02-19-02, 12:06 PM

Here's one for ya. My car locks are shaved and I had keyless entry installed to lock the car while I'm away from it. The problem that I face is...What if my battery goes dead? How do I unlock my doors? I was thinking that I'd adapt some type of power hookup, an extension of the battery terminals, to an exterior part of the car. This way I could hook jumpers up to it and power the keyless entry. Has anyone done this or have any ideas that would help out the situation? Gotta be prepared for anything.

Thanks,

02-20-02, 02:04 PM

Stingray74cc

I have the very same thing done to my 80 i.e. shaved door locks and removed interior door lock switches. What I had the alarm installer do was have the keyless entry both unlock the driver side door and roll down the driver side window. If both of these options fail I also have a manual overide switch hidden inside the gas cap cover. Talk to your alarm installer about a "hidden" manual over-ride switch !!!! I went one step further and had my atenna (sp) glassed over and a small window antenna installed in the glove box. Reception is great and thus far I have not had any issues with the key-less entry.

Stingray74CC · 02-20-02, 02:38 PM

How does the manual override switch help you get into the car with a dead battery?

Anthony

Nut · 02-20-02, 05:33 PM

...and why in GOD's name would you want ANYTHING electrical in the gas filler door? One spark from a switch that goes bad and............. Boom!!! Sayanara 80_Shark and maybe you too. It's the fumes that explode, not the gasoline. I'd move that switch anywhere else but there.

Anthony.... you could probably mount an angle plate up under the front of the car with a pair of parallel terminals/cables to the battery. Or something similar to the keyless system that you could plug in a 12VDC source and activate the door locks. Make it a Sr. Project.

......... Nut

Stingray74CC · 02-20-02, 06:31 PM

Wouldn't it be great if they'd let me toy with the Vette for a senior project? The plate with terminals on it was something along the lines of what I was planning. I'll have to look at the car and see what the best thing would be to do.
I am actually doing something pretty cool for the Senior Project. Me and a about 10-12 other Mids are going to building a miniature formula one racer. The gearheads do one each year...looks like alot of fun. I'll try to find the web site for it. Gotta go to formation,

Take it easy,
Anthony

02-21-02, 01:50 PM

Stingray74cc

Sorry I did not explain myself properly about how you can get in with a dead battery. What I should have explained is that I have two batteries and the alarm is connected to both batteries via a pac (sp) relay. I honestly do not know what I would do if both batteries died. Needless to say I will be in a world of dookie. When I said a switch is hidden behind the gas lid door I sould have specified it not electrical. Its a very crude yet professionally done release cable to open the rear hatch window. I know what you're thinking......... why woudld you climb over the rear to get in? This was the only practical manual switch/release the installer could come up with and I wanted it somewhere most theives would not look. again, sorry for the incomplete info.

Jack · 02-21-02, 03:13 PM

Most pro race cars have remote terminals. Route cables & mount them anywhere but near high heat & gas fumes. See your Summit catalog for part number SUM-G1430 for remote battery jumper terminals at about $22 a pair. You'll also need an additional pair of long, heavy-gage cables (local parts store).
JACK

69MyWay · 02-21-02, 03:36 PM

Hey Jack, you are right about the remote terminals from Summit. I have installed some on other cars and been very happy with them.

This is fairly simple, you can run a cable from the starter + and one from the frame - out to the Summit jumper terminal ends. You could consider mounting them up in the inner fender well behind the shark grilles. They come with nice rubber caps to protect them. If you had to, you could snake a pair of jumper cable leads into the side shark gills and jump it off.

Just a thought.

Or, you could run the cables up past the radiator core support and behind the front license tag grille.

Here is the down side. If you rearend another car, you could go up in an electrical fire by shorting the main cables on the rear bumper of the other car.

Finally thought. You could run them down and out the front section of the battery cubby under the car. facing the rear bumper. You would have to jack up the car or skinny under it to jump it.

Nut · 02-21-02, 04:04 PM

Yeah, that makes more sense 80_Shark. I was worried about ya for a minute there. Sounds like a couple good ideas have been tossed out for you Anthony.

.......... Nut

Eric · 02-21-02, 04:53 PM

Geez Chris, I'm beginning to think there is nothing you haven't done to a car - you're in the wrong business dude!

Anthony - Here's one more fairly easy place to access cables if you go with Chris's suggestion. You could run the cables to a point just below the astro vents then you'd only need a phillips head to remove the vent and attach jumpers. There's not much directly below them but I'm sure something could be rigged. Of course, this would only work if your astros aren't glassed over and from the looks of your car, everything is glassed over.

Best of luck to ya!

- Eric

Stingray74CC · 02-22-02, 07:46 AM

Good Stuff, thanks for all the ideas.

I like the inside fender wall idea. Easy enough access this was and a smaller chance of an electrical short.

Can't wait to get on the road again.

Anthony

Jack · 02-22-02, 01:03 PM

Anthony:
If you go to trouble to do the remote terminal trick, that may be an ideal time to also fit a remote starter solenoid (like a FORD pickup has). About as simple a task as the terminal job ... FORD solenoid stands well off from engine so is affected little by heat & grime ... as opposed to vette starter solenoid contacts. Lotta GM hotrodders use FORD solenoid ... by doing so it bypasses those hot & greasy contacts in the factory GM solenoid while the GM solenoid remains functional as linear motor to engage starter bendix/gear. Summit sells the remote starter solenoid kit (pn SUM-G1750) for about $25. Why, with some creativity you may even be able to mount the FORD solenoid in such a way that (all by itself) it also serves as a remote jumper BAT POS terminal contact ... HMMM ... Whaduya think Chris?

BTW Swabbies... does the term "Where Away" have any significance? Going through a book by same title (c 1944) ... it chronicles plight of USS Marblehead (light cruiser?) during WWII.
JACK

DkBG · 02-22-02, 02:05 PM

I was just thinking . Ya know those little 9 volt gizmo's that keep your clock , radio presets and such on while you have the battery out . I wonder if they might have just enough oomph in them to unlock a door in an emergency . If it did , a simple hook up and a hidden battery maybe . Just a thought !

69MyWay · 02-22-02, 02:30 PM

Jack, I think that would work fine.

Eric, you guys crack me up. Beleive me, I am not ready to quit my day job!

I was thinking about this a little more. DkBG may be onto something. Actually, if you only need to get enough juice into the car to activate the power locks, there is no need for full size batter cables and jumper posts.

So, you could easily run a 10 gauge wire from the starter terminal, and one grounded to the frame. Put a weather pack seal on the end, with a matching plug. Route it into the shark gills, or anywhere you could coil up the wire and tuck it out of the way.

If you kill the battery, dig out the wires, remove the weather pack, and plug/aligator clip the leads to another car battery until you get enough juice to pop the lock. From there you will just open the door and remove the battery for proper charging.

Stingray74CC · 02-22-02, 02:52 PM

As chance would have it, the starter also suffers from pretty severe heat soak. Moving the Starter Selenoid would eliminate this as well wouldn't it? You guys are good. I bought a heat shield for the starter but it doesn't look like it's gonna fit. The starter on this thing is huge, compared to the ones I've seen in the past anyway.

Anthony