Stupid question...Do you unhook your battery's negative terminal when you replace the memcal?

From what I've read, during my quest for the perfect program (which I'm sure never exists) I'll be burning a lot of chips and replacing them pretty often. It sure is a pain to reprogram the memory in my stereo everytime I unhook the battery.

Every manual I've seen says to remove the cable fro the battery's negative terminal before doing anything to the ECU.

Your thoughts?

 

You don't mention what vehicle/ECM you are using, but the fbody's have a fuse, up near the battery, that cuts power to the ECM. You could also put a switch in the harness near the ECM to cut power. If you install a switch make sure to get all the power wires. I believe some ECM's have two hot leads.

 

Thanks Brent. This is actually for my 1991 truck. I guess I can look for a fuse. I never thought of that.

Thanks

 

I spliced into the orange wire right at the ecm and hide a switch for it, so now I have a way to clear the ecms memory, and an antitheft devise

 

Grumpy's suggestion is probly about the best one I can think of or the fuse, I personally just unplug the same orange wire out under the hood, it goes right to the battery. Although the wire may be f-body specific....


Brendan