Battery Disconnect Switch
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 1,192
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From: East Coast
Battery Disconnect Switch
I'm sure this is a dumb question for all the experts. But I really would like to undersatnd this. Why is the battery disconnect switch attached to the ground side battery terminal and not the positive side? It seems to me, if the positive was disconnected there would be no chance creating a short.
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 38,897
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From: Washington Michigan
Re: Battery Disconnect Switch (RESPO6T7)
Because when it's on the ground terminal, it totally eliminates the ground path back to the battery, which makes it impossible to create a short or make a spark anywhere in the car, even if you drop a wrench and one end hits the positive terminal and the other end hits the engine or the frame. If you put it on the positive terminal and drop a wrench on it, the ground path back to the battery still exists, and you can still get a direct short/spark. :thumbs:
[Modified by JohnZ, 2:09 PM 2/5/2003]
[Modified by JohnZ, 2:09 PM 2/5/2003]
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,501
Likes: 0
Re: Battery Disconnect Switch (RESPO6T7)
You're right- you could easily disconnect on the positive side (in fact, some of the old British cars did, but they were 'positive ground' and that's a whole other story) but the theory for why it's on the negative side makes sense.
DC (direct current) works because there is a difference in potential between negative and positive. In order to function as DC, there must be a complete circuit or path for the current to flow. If you disconnect either side of the battery, it will interrupt the circuits.
The theory for disconnecting the negative versus the positive is this. The negative side of the battery is electrically 'common' (connected) with every metal part of the car. The positive side goes (directly or indirectly) only to the specific componants it powers. If you remove the negative side, it removes any possibility of accidently reconnection by removing every metal part of the car from the circuit.
Does that help? :cheers:
DC (direct current) works because there is a difference in potential between negative and positive. In order to function as DC, there must be a complete circuit or path for the current to flow. If you disconnect either side of the battery, it will interrupt the circuits.
The theory for disconnecting the negative versus the positive is this. The negative side of the battery is electrically 'common' (connected) with every metal part of the car. The positive side goes (directly or indirectly) only to the specific componants it powers. If you remove the negative side, it removes any possibility of accidently reconnection by removing every metal part of the car from the circuit.
Does that help? :cheers:
