Greetings racers!

As this is my first post on the racing board, take it easy on me! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

I am preparing my 1991 911 C2 for PCA "D" class and NASA "PS1" racing and have a few questions. I am in the process of acquiring a roll cage, already have the proper seats, harnesses mounted properly and all that jazz.

What I do have left to do is install a Battery Kill Switch and make appropriations for a window net.

I have found a complete kit through DAS (Dougherty) for both issues, but find it hard to believe that each solution costs around $200 each.

I have priced a 6 terminal batt. kill switch at $45, a custom mounting plate for a 911 at around $35...okay, so far we have $80, but will the 1ft. of battery cable, the pull lanyard and any other accessories I need add up to another $108??

Is there a handy way to make a pull lanyard??

...the "kit" offered has a hard plastic "T" handle that you pull on to kill the car and all I've ever seen is a looped cable with RED vinyl tubing surrounding it...the "T" handle I would think could scratch up my paint up towards the cowl and rattle around at high speeds, the "looped" cable with the RED tubing might be a bit nicer on the Glasurit - NO?

I am NOT referring to the red plastic handle -or- KEY that operates the switch, but the remote pull.

Also, I'm a little sketchy on whether you're supposed to wire the alternator or the fuel pump...or both to the switch? AND does anyone have a quick down, dirty and handy way to do this?

ON the window net issue, another $200 solution is nicely presented and available. I have priced what looks to be a decent window net at around $30 and a "weldless" kit for another $30 or so...it attaches the net to the cage using a series of clamps and holders.

Are these viable solutions vice just "ponying" up around $400 to have these two well thought out "kits" sent to my doorstep??

...is it possible I could save a couple hundred bucks by using a little ingenuity?

Any help, suggestions and/or pics would be great...and welcome. Feel free to email me personally if you want to get involved.

 

Jeff,

Walt Fricke just posted on the email racing list today on wiring up the switch. There's also an article in Up-Fixin, I believe vol. 10, maybe 9. If you search the archives I posted the wiring diagram some time back. Walt's post:

Subject: Re: kill switch
From: "Walter Fricke" &lt;FrickeW@ci.boulder.co.us&gt;
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 12:59:08 -0700
X-Message-Number: 8

Bryan
This one comes up all the time, but it is not hard conceptually (or
otherwise). I don't know if Pelicanparts has a writeup.

First you want a battery disconnect so that no wires at all are hot
except a battery cable from the battery positive to the switch. That
way if any wires are cut in an accident they won't spark or glow red
hot. This was the traditional disconnect switch with only one set of
(large) terminals. It did the job it was supposed to do, but often (if
not always) failed to stop the engine if the crash or whatever didn't do
that already.

But if you just do that the engine will still run because the
alternator will be powering it and all its systems. To deal with this
you need a second switch which will be in line with the power supply to
something important, like a coil or a fuel pump. Or even better, to a
relay coil which controls something like this. Lo and behold, the fuel
pump (at least the front one on your 930, which I believe has two)
operates off a relay on the front trunk relay board.

So what you do is purchase a cutoff switch which has three switches
integrated to it. One switch has big lugs and is for the battery cable.
The other two are littler ones with push on terminals. One of these
works like the main switch: it is open when the main is open, and
closed when the main is closed (i.e., in run position). This one is
what you want for your engine kill system. Just find the wire from the
ignition which powers the fuel pump solenoid activation coil (you can
figure this out from a wiring diagram, and if you don't have one
Pelicanparts does - it is for an SC, but the terminals will be the same
for you, and probably the wire colors). Run this keyed hot wire through
the kill switch.

The third switch works the other way - when the kill switch is closed
it is open, and vice versa. What you do with this one is to run a
resistor from the alternator side of the big switch to one terminal of
this little switch, and from the other terminal you connect to ground.
Or you can put the resistor between the switch and ground. This
resistor is said to drain off residual power from the alternator as the
engine dies (due to your other switch) by giving it a path to ground
(which it would have if it were connected as usual to the battery, which
at this point it won't be). This supposedly is to save the diodes in
the alternator. The switches I have purchased (Meritt? brand, and you
now see others advertised with these features - look for one with
"alternator protection" though if it has three systems it will do the
trick) have all come with this resistor (a kind of low resistance high
wattage deal, maybe ten wats?) as well as (which is why I know this
stuff so well) a wiring diagram. Not for a Porsche, but generic.

If you don't think killing the fuel pump will do the trick (and believe
me, on a CIS engine it kills things immediately. The SCs anyway use
that as a rev limiter), just start your engine, open the hood, and pull
the fuel pump relay. Let me know if that doesn't kill the engine.

If, in fact, this doesn't kill the engine, then you need to wire the
parallel switch into something which controls ignition. There is always
at least one wire from the ignition switch back to whatever coils there
are.

Walt Fricke

 

Jeff, I just purchased some battery cable from McMaster. Let me know if you need some. I have 12'. it was 6.00$ a foot for the really nice stuff( multi strand so it bends easily and it's red).

Cheers, James

 

Your weldless window net solution should be fine. I have complete Schroth kit that came with net, clamped attachment kit for about that price and it worked fine.

In NASA I think you would actually be in PS0 since PS1 is supposed to mirror SCCA ITS.

 

Cool, thanks for the answers regarding both issues guys!

M758, I thought about that after posting, you're right...PS0. WHERE did you find a Schroth kit??

Bill, have you installed a batt. kill switch on your car?? If so, email me offline and let me know how you did it. The alternator wire and fuel pump power are two leads I haven't messed with as of yet.

James, I'm thinking I'll just purchase a generic ground cable, sure it'll be black, but it will have the battery terminal and connector for the switch side already connected...I really want to keep this simple, and cheap!

Any other ideas out there? ...like for the pull lanyard and the red covering for it, crimp materials, etc...thinking I'll just buy the neat bracket I found at DAS Sport, maybe their switch, just don't see where the other $100 worth of stuff comes from! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

 

For your pull, I ran a wire from the switch, up thru the washer nozzle hole that had a rubber grommet and made a loop with wire crimp. My wire crimp fits snuggly in the grommet and has never flopped out. You can also hold it down with a wiper or a piece of racer tape. I have no red covering for it, but a little piece if red 3/16 hose should do the trick. That and an off sticker has worked for 8 years. My switch has failed a time or two, so my next switch will be the Longacres. They supposedly never fail.

 

One caution towards using your wipers to hold your pull lanyard...on a 911, if you hit the wiper switch from time to time, as I do - you may very well shut your car off! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

This would SUCK during a race. <img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" />

We have a local racer that this happened to, he was sharing stories tonight at the local shop and decided to put himself at our mercy for a good laugh.

I'm going to puchase a Merit switch through IO Port and the "nifty" mounting bracket through DAS. I pretty much have the switch all figured out...just haven't looked into what wires to splice into for the fuel pump - no problem.

 

CURVE BALL!! <img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" />

NASA CCRs state that the window net must detach from the TOP and drop down. This makes sense because if your door is damaged in a "T"-bone or rollover, and it bends the lower bar...you can't slide it out to exit the car.

The upper bar is supposed to run along your rollcage bar and will unlikely be damaged.

That making sense, NO "weldless" window net solution will work.

HOW are you guys assembling the bosses on your roll cages and fabricating the rods with washers/springs??

Pictures anyone? ...this is really becoming a pain in my A__! <img border="0" alt="[crying]" title="" src="graemlins/crying.gif" />

 

Jaff, I will post pictures of my Net next week once I get it fitted. PCA has the same rules regarding the removal of the net.

Cheers, James

 

My weldless solution is shown below.
drops from the top downward and clamps to the roll cage. It is legal for PCA and NASA.

<img src="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/Wnet1.JPG" alt=" - " />

The picture is not the best, but it does work.