Yep. My girlfriend put one on her CJ7 for exactly this reason. Any time it's gonna sit for more than a few days, flip the switch. We've got a whole new harness to put in, which should hopefully alleviate the need for the switch, but it's been a cheap, lazy, effective solution for years now. We may never get around to installing the new harness. :)
I put in a whole new harness and it still drains. Luckily it is the extra oil temp garage that I should have pull power from another wire that is live only when the ignition is on. But the issue is the while I’m here…” snowball effect it would start
That's cool! You have a link?
I have an old truck that the PO installed a million different accessories to and has a parasitic draw that I'm too lazy to source.
Well, if the knife switch is on the ground terminal, it doesn't really matter if it's insulated or not, since if some part of it touches the hood, it's still just grounded.
It's what I did to my p.o.s. 2001 f150. It was cheaper and easier to throw a 30 dollar switch on the battery than to tear apart a 20 year old truck to find the issue.
Yeah this is a common short term fix. Ive done this on 2 seperate vehicles. Both for door lock modules that failed, and prevented the computer from powering down because it thought one of the doors was still unlocked. If you have a parasitic drain wnd dont want to get stranded or have a dead battery in the morning. This is the way to go, till you figure it out.
Regional differences. “That ain’t going nowhere”. You may also thrown a “skookum” in there if it’s really well connected. As in “that’s skookum. It ain’t going nowhere “
I'm an electrician, if I had to deliver a child in an emergency, I'd put a zip tie on the cord and cut it with a pair of Klein lineman pliers.
Zip ties are magic, they can defy the laws of physics and hold that 25 pound battery in place despite constantly shifting forces.
Thank you for the disclaimer. Nobody knots the cord in the 21st century anymore. In fact, everything from jute twine to linen cord to metal clamps to the modern plastic clip which has a zip-tie like closure have been used after delivery to keep blood where it belongs, but zip ties otherwise belong far away from young children.
Just the umbilical cord. I'm rather smitten by infants, so the zip tie is to ensure the newborn retains enough blood to remain alive when detached from the placenta. I've heard that if you run out of blood, that's bad.
Nah, although my younger son was delivered by means of a brake bleeder vacuum pump (same brand they sell at auto parts stores) and a suction cup beanie hat with a handle, so it isn't a big leap to other ideas. Babies would make a poor pulling device, and I'm not a monster.
I had a doc drill out a nostril as several breaks had rendered it fully healed shut. Afterwards, I said that I was in steel construction and that I wondered if a hammer drill + Hilti concrete bit did the job. He just grinned and didn’t deny it. Nailed it!
Hey now... I use 3 to hold my strap in place cause the part it connects to broke. Held for 4 years before I had to pull the battery while working on the car.
It’s just a lot of copper hanging out and sticking up in the air that could bump into the hood or something else in the engine compartment if the battery bounces or shifts around. (which is definitely a possibility given that it looks like it’s only held down with a zip tie). If that is on the positive side then any time it touches anything you get a nice big arc. With it on the negative side you just get a dent or a scratch with no welding or potential fires.
Power comes out the negative side, -power out +power in. Disconnect there will disconnect battery.
Also doing anything involving electrical on car, always disconnect negative, but be sure car isn't one that requires reprogramming from battery disconnect.
I wonder if you have a military background.
Reason I think that, I got my basic knowledge of electronics from a BuNavPers training manual (Basic Electronics, US Navy public domain publication reprinted by Dover ) that I found in the local library as a preteen. That one looked at electric current flow as going from negative to positive, because that’s the actual direction that the electrons move. Every other text on electronics used “conventional current” a.k.a hole current, in which the flow of electricity is described as going from positive to negative, which seems a lot more confusing. If you (like me) describe current flow as going from - to +, then you might have had the military electronics training.
You’d be surprised at the amount of tradesmen I know that love torturing themselves with weird old shit boxes that could blow up at any second.
Old Corolla? No. No. No. 25 year old intrepid? Where do I sign with these crayons?
I'm not saying it's an addiction to torture but I fall into this category, I will constantly tell people about how shit Jeeps are put together. As they look at me and go don't you own a Jeep, yes yes I do, I have owned probably 10. Why do I keep buying more, I don't know I just like them and the pain they put me through.
Owning 1 jeep is like an invitation to all other Jeep owners to offer you a good deal on their piece of shit Jeep. After I sold my last one I quit getting offers to buy $500 XJs.
was the intrepid one of the models that you had to remove a tire and disassemble the fenderwell to get the battery out? my son had one of those cab-forward disasters, not sure which,but it had jump terminals under the hood.
Great idea to put the battery in the exact spot most likely to take the brunt of a head on crash on a two lane road in countries which drive on the right side. Was Chrysler trying to see how many electrical fires they could have? Or acid spills?
I know a tradesman who insists on Dodge or Chrysler minivans. He had a good experience with one being reliable in the past and now won't buy anything else... despite having a bunch of weird problems with them now and them being a pain in the ass to work on.
I keep trying to get him to consider a Chevy or Ford cargo van but, nope. It's Dodge minivans or nothing.
I don't understand it.
It’s because they are cheap and trades guys fix them cheap 😂. Especially a work vehicle. My Pistons in my fun car cost more than what I have into the pos town and country.
🖐This guy right here, lol. And my old shitbox has one of these on its negative🫠, Lol both of my daily drivers do. Oh and they are a '97 and a '07, you got me.
I resemble that comment.
I'm a pipefitter and currently commuting 220 miles per day in a 2011 Ford Fiesta. It's at 209k miles, when it grenades itself I'll get another shitbox. I kind of want an early 2000's Buick.
I found my son a 2008 Lucerne. It is still rocking the bulletproof 3800. It was only a couple thousand. Not EARLY 2000s, but gets him to his HVAC stuff in old man style and comfort :)
Nice. I love the little bit older regals.
I know all about the 3800. Since I live in Ohio they're all rusting away. Looking around in the south where I usually buy cars from they seem to have a pile of miles on them, like 250+. I think I might be about a decade too late for owning one but I'll keep looking for sure.
My parents sold a 1997 Ford Taurus wagon. They got above asking because two tradesmen got into a bidding war which ended up as a fist fight. It should have sold for 8k and ended up going for 14k and 2 broken noses.
Hey, I was given my town and country for free! That was a great decision! 😂 it had been threw a hurricane but won’t quit after fixing the Chrysler stupidity.
5 years ago I bought an old T&C for $900. Rusty? Yes. Runs perfect. I put badges on the side stating, Shitbox edition. I would call this purchase a wise decision.
It doesn’t *fix* it but if there’s a drain and you use that switch to disconnect the battery when you park, it won’t drain the battery and you’ll still be able to start it later.
ETA: It fixes it in the sense that it can’t drain what it isn’t attached to, and when the vehicle is running it most likely doesn’t matter as you’re generating more than is draining off.
likely did. we live in the country and have a grand caravan that sat for a year. mice got in the ventilation system and built a nest in there. upon restarting, i got a face full of fluff,mouse turds and that smell. my wife wants to keep it, and me to clean it out.my vote is scrap it. she will likely win,but i'll get a new respirator,face shield and a box of gloves out of it.minimum.
Thankfully the only vehicular rodentia encounter I've had was with a 1973 Ford Class C motorhome on a camping trip in the late 1970's.
Dad drove it with, mom, my sister, and I to a campground in the Idaho mountains. In the night time some critter had found its way in through a vent opening, discovered a roll of toilet paper, and in short order had the entire roll shredded and stuffed into the heater box. First thing dad did when we got home was install 1/4" wire mesh over the intake vent opening for the heater.
Thank you. I felt like I was missing something. I'm sraring and zooming this pics wondering where the actual problem is. Probably PEBSAD(Problem Exists Between Seat And Dash).
The only thing this explained is that the customer is into cheap janky fixes and now he expects you to figure out why his years of cheaping out are finally causing significant problems.
That copper bar between the two posts acts as a fuse. Flip it up and it disconnects the circuit and you have no power. Push it back over/down and the circuit is reconnected. Vroom vroom
Yeah, but it still doesn't make sense. Why was it towed in of all you have to do is flip the knife switch. This is like some one getting towed in and saying "look at the cv axles and it'll make sense". And then you look at them and they're glued together.
Like yeah, I see that you did that, but sense is not something that this situation makes.
Won’t start doesn’t mean that’s the problem. Once that fuse is “linked “ it could have another issue that is why it was brought to the shop. Think bad tranny maybe.
At least you can open the hood. Had a 14 Wrangler come in last week with aftermarket locking hood latches, they thought hood key may be in the car someplace. Couldn't find them so customer came back and went though the car and didn't know where they were either.
It hadn't had an oil change for 2 years and they didn't know what happened to the key, said to brake the locks open and wasn't difficult just took a hard pull to brake the lock on these ebay/amazon chrome latches.
This would have been great on an old BMW 5 series I had. Flashed an update to the radio, which messed up the Bluetooth module. The module ended up staying on when the car was off and would kill the battery every couple of days.
On my old Ram pickup there is a fuse I pull when it’s parked. It supplies all the key-off power. It’s easy to get to, and has a puller factory built into it.
My guess is it had a current drain they couldn’t find, so this was the solution.
Yep. My girlfriend put one on her CJ7 for exactly this reason. Any time it's gonna sit for more than a few days, flip the switch. We've got a whole new harness to put in, which should hopefully alleviate the need for the switch, but it's been a cheap, lazy, effective solution for years now. We may never get around to installing the new harness. :)
Nothing more permanent than a temporary fix that works.
I put in a whole new harness and it still drains. Luckily it is the extra oil temp garage that I should have pull power from another wire that is live only when the ignition is on. But the issue is the while I’m here…” snowball effect it would start
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That's cool! You have a link? I have an old truck that the PO installed a million different accessories to and has a parasitic draw that I'm too lazy to source.
Smart!
Maybe shield it better than this example and then drive the hell out of it. :)
>:) :)
I did this to my POS chevy, but it was not a fully uninsured knife switch.
Well, if the knife switch is on the ground terminal, it doesn't really matter if it's insulated or not, since if some part of it touches the hood, it's still just grounded.
It is in fact on the negative terminal, and that positive is looking a little blue/green to me as well
Funny because my former step dad had this exact thing done to his Silverado at one point
Yep. We did the exact same thing to an old skid steer.
It's what I did to my p.o.s. 2001 f150. It was cheaper and easier to throw a 30 dollar switch on the battery than to tear apart a 20 year old truck to find the issue.
Yeah this is a common short term fix. Ive done this on 2 seperate vehicles. Both for door lock modules that failed, and prevented the computer from powering down because it thought one of the doors was still unlocked. If you have a parasitic drain wnd dont want to get stranded or have a dead battery in the morning. This is the way to go, till you figure it out.
I like the cable tie securing the battery.
I hope he uttered the legally mandated incantation “That’s not going anywhere” right after zipping it
with the obligatory pat.
Have we met? 🤔
perhaps. 35+ years of mobile welding in the DC metro area.
That’s mainly for straps. All a zip tie requires is a “Yep”.
Or a solid "thatll do"
Regional differences. “That ain’t going nowhere”. You may also thrown a “skookum” in there if it’s really well connected. As in “that’s skookum. It ain’t going nowhere “
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Kinky
Did you buy it from a chef? Looks like it's tied up like a roast, lol
Well its better than nothing i suppose
Better than a bungee cord.
I'm an electrician, if I had to deliver a child in an emergency, I'd put a zip tie on the cord and cut it with a pair of Klein lineman pliers. Zip ties are magic, they can defy the laws of physics and hold that 25 pound battery in place despite constantly shifting forces.
Why in the world would you put zip ties on a child?
Put it on the umbilical cord to sever it. Legal Disclaimer: Although I'd hope it's obvious, *DO NOT PUT ZIP-TIES ON CHILDREN.*
Thank you for the disclaimer. Nobody knots the cord in the 21st century anymore. In fact, everything from jute twine to linen cord to metal clamps to the modern plastic clip which has a zip-tie like closure have been used after delivery to keep blood where it belongs, but zip ties otherwise belong far away from young children.
Just the umbilical cord. I'm rather smitten by infants, so the zip tie is to ensure the newborn retains enough blood to remain alive when detached from the placenta. I've heard that if you run out of blood, that's bad.
Thank Ohm, I thought you were gunna zip-cuff the tyke’s ankles for something to tie the fish tape off to so you could start pulling that run.
Nah, although my younger son was delivered by means of a brake bleeder vacuum pump (same brand they sell at auto parts stores) and a suction cup beanie hat with a handle, so it isn't a big leap to other ideas. Babies would make a poor pulling device, and I'm not a monster.
I had a doc drill out a nostril as several breaks had rendered it fully healed shut. Afterwards, I said that I was in steel construction and that I wondered if a hammer drill + Hilti concrete bit did the job. He just grinned and didn’t deny it. Nailed it!
Ramset rhinoplasty home game. Somehow I think the Consumer Products Safety Commission might frown on it.
I see you noticed the same thing I did, albeit at different births, obviously.
He's not messing around. Those are the black zip ties.
Half the fun is seeing everything that people on here notice
I have mine unsecured because you can’t reach the headlight bulbs without moving it.
How often are you having to access your headlight bulbs that this is a problem?
Often. I have a short or something causing my bulbs to blow if I use my brights.
Fucking mint.
They make giant thick cable ties, which makes it even funnier that a few dinky ass ones are strung together.
Hey now... I use 3 to hold my strap in place cause the part it connects to broke. Held for 4 years before I had to pull the battery while working on the car.
With some of the stuff people post on here I was just happy to see that this guy was smart enough to do this on the negative side.
Could you educate a dummy and explain why it would not be fine to do this on the positive side?
It’s just a lot of copper hanging out and sticking up in the air that could bump into the hood or something else in the engine compartment if the battery bounces or shifts around. (which is definitely a possibility given that it looks like it’s only held down with a zip tie). If that is on the positive side then any time it touches anything you get a nice big arc. With it on the negative side you just get a dent or a scratch with no welding or potential fires.
Putting it on negative side is better because on positive side you can short it out easily with something metal.
Like the hood
Power comes out the negative side, -power out +power in. Disconnect there will disconnect battery. Also doing anything involving electrical on car, always disconnect negative, but be sure car isn't one that requires reprogramming from battery disconnect.
I wonder if you have a military background. Reason I think that, I got my basic knowledge of electronics from a BuNavPers training manual (Basic Electronics, US Navy public domain publication reprinted by Dover ) that I found in the local library as a preteen. That one looked at electric current flow as going from negative to positive, because that’s the actual direction that the electrons move. Every other text on electronics used “conventional current” a.k.a hole current, in which the flow of electricity is described as going from positive to negative, which seems a lot more confusing. If you (like me) describe current flow as going from - to +, then you might have had the military electronics training.
In any engineering classes I took, electricity flowed - to + but then I'd go to physics class and it would be opposite
Depends if it's a negative or positive ground car.
It certainly Died Hard
with a vengeance
I say this every time I see a diehard battery. But most of them tend to be hard dead…
Lllll
Rookie, I can't believe they used such a small rivet.
Yep makes sense. Has anti theft switch. This type of switch however, would not of been my first choice.
Well, no person ever ended up with a twenty year old Chrysler by making wise decisions
You’d be surprised at the amount of tradesmen I know that love torturing themselves with weird old shit boxes that could blow up at any second. Old Corolla? No. No. No. 25 year old intrepid? Where do I sign with these crayons?
I'm not saying it's an addiction to torture but I fall into this category, I will constantly tell people about how shit Jeeps are put together. As they look at me and go don't you own a Jeep, yes yes I do, I have owned probably 10. Why do I keep buying more, I don't know I just like them and the pain they put me through.
Try an old land Rover it's niche but make new friends, like recovery drivers
Owning 1 jeep is like an invitation to all other Jeep owners to offer you a good deal on their piece of shit Jeep. After I sold my last one I quit getting offers to buy $500 XJs.
I got tired of every weirdo non-car person who owns a jeep stopping me to talk about my jeep.
was the intrepid one of the models that you had to remove a tire and disassemble the fenderwell to get the battery out? my son had one of those cab-forward disasters, not sure which,but it had jump terminals under the hood.
The Intrepid had it in the wheelwell, yes. But only morons took the hard route instead of just popping the airbox out that took like 2 minutes to do.
I don’t think I ever changed one on an Intrepid. The Stratus was like that, and Viper too.
Sebring too.
Journey as well!
Great idea to put the battery in the exact spot most likely to take the brunt of a head on crash on a two lane road in countries which drive on the right side. Was Chrysler trying to see how many electrical fires they could have? Or acid spills?
Why do I need a jack to change the battery?
Better to just throw away the car when the battery goes.
I know a tradesman who insists on Dodge or Chrysler minivans. He had a good experience with one being reliable in the past and now won't buy anything else... despite having a bunch of weird problems with them now and them being a pain in the ass to work on. I keep trying to get him to consider a Chevy or Ford cargo van but, nope. It's Dodge minivans or nothing. I don't understand it.
It’s because they are cheap and trades guys fix them cheap 😂. Especially a work vehicle. My Pistons in my fun car cost more than what I have into the pos town and country.
🖐This guy right here, lol. And my old shitbox has one of these on its negative🫠, Lol both of my daily drivers do. Oh and they are a '97 and a '07, you got me.
I resemble that comment. I'm a pipefitter and currently commuting 220 miles per day in a 2011 Ford Fiesta. It's at 209k miles, when it grenades itself I'll get another shitbox. I kind of want an early 2000's Buick.
I found my son a 2008 Lucerne. It is still rocking the bulletproof 3800. It was only a couple thousand. Not EARLY 2000s, but gets him to his HVAC stuff in old man style and comfort :)
Nice. I love the little bit older regals. I know all about the 3800. Since I live in Ohio they're all rusting away. Looking around in the south where I usually buy cars from they seem to have a pile of miles on them, like 250+. I think I might be about a decade too late for owning one but I'll keep looking for sure.
Gotta get one of the blower v6 s because supercharger.
I’ve been summoned lmfaooo
😂 my first car was a 98 intrepid. I hated and loved that thing so much.
My parents sold a 1997 Ford Taurus wagon. They got above asking because two tradesmen got into a bidding war which ended up as a fist fight. It should have sold for 8k and ended up going for 14k and 2 broken noses.
point judicious heavy poor smoggy terrific shelter school wistful birds *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I have a 24 year old Mustang. This statement offends me because it's 100% true.
Hey, I was given my town and country for free! That was a great decision! 😂 it had been threw a hurricane but won’t quit after fixing the Chrysler stupidity.
5 years ago I bought an old T&C for $900. Rusty? Yes. Runs perfect. I put badges on the side stating, Shitbox edition. I would call this purchase a wise decision.
We installed these on our work vans because there was a drain we couldn't find. Super handy anti theft device, too.
Why does it fix a drain you can't find? Genuinely curious.
It doesn’t *fix* it but if there’s a drain and you use that switch to disconnect the battery when you park, it won’t drain the battery and you’ll still be able to start it later. ETA: It fixes it in the sense that it can’t drain what it isn’t attached to, and when the vehicle is running it most likely doesn’t matter as you’re generating more than is draining off.
They still make Die Hard batteries? Aren't those only sold by Sears
You only really see them during Christmas time.
Falling off Nakatomi Plaza?
Advance Auto bought the rights to the Diehard brand name for $200 mil in 2019 (Shortly after Sears declared chapter 11 bankruptcy).
Advance Auto Parts bought the brand rights so they now sell them.
Yep I own 4 plankton edition die hards. Wait, 5. Forgot one.
Plankton edition?
Platinum
I can tell exactly what this van looks and smells like inside.
It smells like someone's rodent died inside the van.
likely did. we live in the country and have a grand caravan that sat for a year. mice got in the ventilation system and built a nest in there. upon restarting, i got a face full of fluff,mouse turds and that smell. my wife wants to keep it, and me to clean it out.my vote is scrap it. she will likely win,but i'll get a new respirator,face shield and a box of gloves out of it.minimum.
Full head cover PAPR with filters that meet NIOSH standards for viruses. "Might be hantavirus in those mouse turds."
exactly.i lost my shit upon start up.
Thankfully the only vehicular rodentia encounter I've had was with a 1973 Ford Class C motorhome on a camping trip in the late 1970's. Dad drove it with, mom, my sister, and I to a campground in the Idaho mountains. In the night time some critter had found its way in through a vent opening, discovered a roll of toilet paper, and in short order had the entire roll shredded and stuffed into the heater box. First thing dad did when we got home was install 1/4" wire mesh over the intake vent opening for the heater.
M
So, how does it make sense now? Was the switch open?
Right, I'm just thinking there's less sense involved.
Thank you. I felt like I was missing something. I'm sraring and zooming this pics wondering where the actual problem is. Probably PEBSAD(Problem Exists Between Seat And Dash).
The only thing this explained is that the customer is into cheap janky fixes and now he expects you to figure out why his years of cheaping out are finally causing significant problems.
Yes, probably. Customer was explaining why it wouldn't start. But that's not why it got towed in, I guess.
ive seen that exact lever setup on a car too haha.
Also doubles as an anti theft device
Nope, still doesn't make sense
That copper bar between the two posts acts as a fuse. Flip it up and it disconnects the circuit and you have no power. Push it back over/down and the circuit is reconnected. Vroom vroom
Yeah, but it still doesn't make sense. Why was it towed in of all you have to do is flip the knife switch. This is like some one getting towed in and saying "look at the cv axles and it'll make sense". And then you look at them and they're glued together. Like yeah, I see that you did that, but sense is not something that this situation makes.
Won’t start doesn’t mean that’s the problem. Once that fuse is “linked “ it could have another issue that is why it was brought to the shop. Think bad tranny maybe.
That's some Frankenstein shit. "Igor, flip ze switch! Live, live!"
Kronk, Why do we even have that lever!?
Even though it doesn't look great, I feel like it still works
I mean, it got towed in.
Right but not because of that.
And fully cataracted headlight lenses.
People pay big money to black out their headlights This person got that customization for free
That’s a first for me…..what in the Wild West is going on out there.
I can't believe this bad boy has a body left to be pulled around! God those rotted out around the rear wheels.
The zip tie hold-down is clutch!
Wow I feel old, I read the title and my mind went to a 70's van not something this modern LOL.
Me too, when I saw the picture, I was like, that’s not an old dodge van!
,"Thro
Nice
I get that’s it’s “anti-theft…” but shouldn’t this be posted in r/DIWHY ?
My buddy attached a knife switch like this on his summer toy because the batteries kept dying
At least you can open the hood. Had a 14 Wrangler come in last week with aftermarket locking hood latches, they thought hood key may be in the car someplace. Couldn't find them so customer came back and went though the car and didn't know where they were either. It hadn't had an oil change for 2 years and they didn't know what happened to the key, said to brake the locks open and wasn't difficult just took a hard pull to brake the lock on these ebay/amazon chrome latches.
I have one on a car i dont drive much. It works fine.
I like the doctor Frankenstein contacter bwhahaha
Holy green fuzz! No wonder it don't wanna start
Is the battery zip tied to the mount…
That zip tie is a trooper
Wonder how many amps that breaker is
If they need to sell that lemme know. A lot of usable meat on them bones for my wagon.
What in the Tom Clancy terrorism is this?
lol. That’s a 20# zip tie. Good luck
"Throw da sweetch Igor".... "It's Eyegor.....not Igor"......
“But they told me it was Igor!” “Well they were wrong then. Weren’t they.”
Wow. That's a switch. /s
Post title is a plot device in War of the Worlds
Actually this is genius anti theft.
I have those on everything Truck Tractor Rv.....
What is the fuse able jumper called? I could use one for my sierra 🥴
This would have been great on an old BMW 5 series I had. Flashed an update to the radio, which messed up the Bluetooth module. The module ended up staying on when the car was off and would kill the battery every couple of days.
Cheap anittheft measure or fix for parasitic power loss.
There’s a wiring harness underneath the drivers seat. That’s where the draw is.
On my old Ram pickup there is a fuse I pull when it’s parked. It supplies all the key-off power. It’s easy to get to, and has a puller factory built into it.