thoughts about car battery keep hooked up OR disconnect ?

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22dog22

22dog22

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do not drive the Cuda much thoughts on keeping the battery hooked up or disconnecting while parked for a few weeks ??
 
A few weeks at a time shouldn't effect the battery to much if you're driving enough to recharge it. A battery tender is the best way to extend battery life.
 
Some things can happen leaving a battery connected. Years ago my daily driver Mopar's horn started blaring in the middle of the night all by itself. If I were not home what would the possibilities have been? Dead battery, over heated circuits resulting in ????.
It seems that battery terminal corrosion is worse with a connected battery. I have a quick connect cable end on my a-body which is also not driven much. All it takes is to pop the hood and disconnect, no tools needed.
Have also heard of a collector who had battery tenders hooked up to several vehicles that were unattended for periods of time. Evidently some malfunction caused a few batteries to explode. By the time they were checked the acid had done considerable damage. (Just something I heard, don't know if true).
Yote
 
I use one of these battery disconnects:

Battery Disconnect.jpg
 
You can buy various devices "right on the battery post" they are a switch that mounts right there. Problem of course is finding one that is decent quality

I agree with above^^ if it's only "a few weeks" and you have nothing with parasitic drain, it should be fine. Modern radios have a "keep alive" for the memory, and that drains a bit, and some alternator diodes "leak" more than they should
 
Buss makes a battery disconnect, pop hood and loosen a knob.
Or remove it and put it in your pocket for a sense of security.
 
If you don't have a lot of confidence in your cars wiring then a disconnect is a good idea, but also using a battery tender will still increase your battery life.
 
I'm not sure where I got mine. It's become "muscle memory" now to twist the knob before and after the outing.
 
snug your positive terminal lightly a hair above being bottomed out on the tapered battery post.
Lift up at the same time you make a half turn cc to remove.Push down and twist a half turn clockwise to install.It will soon be easy to snug it on or remove when not in use.
I would never leave it connected unattended with 50 year old plus wiring on these relics.
 
After having my exhaust bent/installed and getting some help with a few other things when getting the Dart back on the road, the owner of a local well respected restoration shop (and diehard Mopar guy) firmly suggested that I disconnect the battery any time that the car is going to sit. With half-century old wires, there’s always the possibility of a short somewhere that could result in a tragedy...and this guy sees a lot of old cars.

I realize that plenty of folks here have equally valid perspectives on the matter but there was something in his statement that made me believe that he had seen direct evidence of this danger. I believed him. My car is never parked for more than a few hours without being disconnected.
 
my car parks in my basement of my house so it always gets disconnected . think about it .
 
Disconnected, Mine seem to set for a while. I use a red top Optima in both 68 Barracuda and 69 Dart. Dart battery is13 years old.
 
After loosing my ‘64, some motorcycles, tools, and lots of other stuff to an overnight garage fire (was not car related, said the fire inspectors), I don’t mess around. I disconnect.
 
I vote for disconnecting the battery and then keeping it on a battery maintainer. The last Sears Diehard battery I had lasted 15 years (using a maintainer)and was STILL WORKING but I was beginning to think I was pushing my luck so in 2005 I bought another Diehard (the biggest and baddest one they made) and it, like the last one has never failed me. The only down side is if you have a radio that has memory wire requirements you are going to loose all of the station presets and Bluetooth pairing.
 
Always disconnect it. Left connected all it would take is a mouse chewing wires to start a fire. If it sits over the winter or long term use a battery tender or top the battery with a charger every few weeks.
 
Moroso makes a good heavy duty battery terminal style with a knob, put it on the negative battery terminal, and turn it off when the car is parked.
 
DartGTDan said:
I use one of these battery disconnects:

View attachment 1715188279
Click to expand...

Tooljunkie said:
Buss makes a battery disconnect, pop hood and loosen a knob.
Or remove it and put it in your pocket for a sense of security.
Click to expand...

This is what I do, and I'm not sure what thread size is in that knob but I had a hard time finding it.

I, too, have seen the 'horn spontaneously blaring', and I also know that things like relays and breakers can fail and short at any time.

Total side note: Buy a flir camera for your cell phone and go over your harness, car off and cold, and after a drive. It's cheap insurance and if you see that hot spot...FIX IT
 
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