NHRA rulles questions
 

1.) I relocated battery in the rear spare tire well ... spoke to Joe K. and he said that it should be ok as is without a sealed box as it is behind the speaker compartment and storage lid/compartment. Can someone with Thunder clarify with NPR if they will allow this or will I need a sealed box? Unfortunately there isn't a sealed box I can find that will fit in this tight area.

2.) My harnesses are wrapped around the cross bar on the roll cage behind the drivers seat ... is this legal? Do they have to be bolted to the cage?

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

gotta have sealed box if battery is in driver's compartment.

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

Steve, this battery box will fit in the spare tire compartment.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...t=SUM%2D890100

DERTY posted some pics of it awhile back and this is the same box he used.

http://www.derty.org/382SR/battery.zip

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

Your also gonna need an external ON/OFF switch mounted on the rear of the car. A push/pull looks better.

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

The battery technically needs to be sealed and you will need a disconnect in order to be fully legal. I don't think many complain, but it's also not terribly wise from a safety perspective. Also you will have to run two wires to the front not one. One wire to the fuse box and starter from the disconnect side of the switch. Another wire to the alternator on the battery side of the switch. This will insure that it truly severs power to the car.

You can have your harness looped over the crossbar. Technically the harnesses need to have a way to retain them to that location and keep them from sliding laterally across the car. Most that I have seen has been a thin piece of bar welded in parallel to the main bar that you can loop the straps through. I haven't seen many technically look at that, but that's how the rule is.

This winter I'm planning on going over my entire car with the camera and getting some better shots. I realized that some of them are not that great looking. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

thanks for the responses .... I am going to hook-up the battery disconnect but what would the Tech say of I just ran one wire to the disconnect and from there to the battery?

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

What's the point in having the battery disconnect if it can't disconnect the power from the car? You'd be better off not having one because you could put the track workers in harms way if your car caught fire, they push it and expect it to go out. Yet you fuel an electrical fire with it. If you are going to do it, do it right. Just my humble opinion.

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

I am not an electrical expert by any means, just curious as to why the installation instructions say to install the cut off in line between the battery and electrical system. Do the cut off switches sometimes fail? I would imagine that if you cutr off the battery then you cut off electrical supply to the car.

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

The battery is used to start the car and provide extra amperage in a time of need. Once the car is started the alternator is grounded to the frame and the alternator provides the power to the car for the rest of the time. At the same time the battery is continuously charged by the alternators surplus of electricity generated. If you simply cut the battery off all you do is stop charging it and you are running off the alternator at that point.

Most "race" cars don't run alternators and they simply use one or two batteries to provide all the power for their run. In their case you simply cut the battery and the car stops running.

That's why you take the positive wire from the alternator and connect it to the battery side of the switch. You treat both as if they were +12v, because they are. The grounds don't matter. However, don't put the disconnect on the ground wire of the battery. That will do the same thing, everything is grounded to the car and you would only stop charging the battery at that point. On the factory harness you'll notice that the positive wire is doubled up. One goes to the alternator and the other goes up to the fuse box. Same general idea here, you just need to break both of them, then you'll be all set.

Re: NHRA rulles questions
 

ahhhh Grasshopper understands now