I want to throw my hat in the ring, sans actually having done any of this.
I'm a fan of "Go OEM or go home." Which isn't to say you should be factory bone stock, nor only OEM parts, but I like to think how I'd do it if had designed the car myself, and it was done from the factory.
In this case, since most shift knobs are a soft plastic or even a rubber/vinyl substance, it'd be very easy to cut out a recess in the knob for the switch - small momentary switches are easy enough to use and durable (think computer power switch) - and then run the leads right down the shifter, into the boot, and then wherever they need to go from there. Buried into the shift knob like that means you'd have to be trying to engage it.
I strongly encourage using heatshrink (it's cheap, easy, and a good way to protect wires), as well as wire loom - look for braided wire loom, they have fiberglass for heat resistance and nylon available for regular purposes. All of this keeps the wires from getting abraded and failing, which could short out your injectors and shut them down.
You can also look into strain relief boots and the like.
If possible, I'd always try to engineer the design to fail on rather than off, so even if you short out or lose connectivity, the injectors just assume they're supposed to keep working.
For reference, there's a good story about the F-16. Early in its life, the F-16 suffered from problems with instrument failures and other issues due entirely to the wire harnesses chafing. The F-16 being fly by wire, without those cables, instruments and controls can just stop working, and in one case, a pilot was flying in a cloud bank and was unaware he was inverted. His plane indicated he was losing altitude, and with no visual reference, he did what a good pilot does and pulled up - driving straight into the ground.
Can this happen to us? Well, no, not exactly, but as pointed out above, having them off at the wrong time could potentially be fatal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CigaR007
Just be careful when deciding on the location of the kill switch. It has to be accessible but not too accessible. It could be very dangerous to kill the injectors by accident while upshifting/downshifting during an emergency maneuver.
Safety is number one in my book.
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I was in a situation once with my current car where having a manual definitely avoided a collision and probably saved lives. Though I wouldn't have been using a kill switch at this time, it highlights the necessity of having power available at a split second.
Coming from an on-ramp with a relatively sharp curve to it (and thus, no sight onto the highway in the direction you're heading), and a fairly short space to accelerate and merge, you kind of need to carry some speed through the ramp or have a lot of power on tap. This being the Bronx, drivers tend not to care much about whether or not you can merge, and they don't even always move over a lane to let you in, regardless of availability. (New Yorkers, we're nice people.)
As I came through the end of the ramp's curve, though I now had a view of the road ahead, I somehow got preoccupied checking over my shoulder to verify I had room to merge. I was clear, and when I turned back, I had somehow missed a car STOPPED in the immediate right lane. From memory I jumped to the center lane and prayed nobody got in there before I moved as I didn't have a moment to look again.
As soon as I moved into that lane, I saw ANOTHER car stopped in the CENTER lane with some guys trying to push it. I guess they heard me coming, and they bailed, but one of them sprinted into the left lane, and there was no left shoulder. There wasn't enough distance to stop, and not enough room between the car in the middle lane and right lane to move over again at speed in my opinion.
Luck, experience, and maybe skill - my friend calls me "Miss CIA" when I drive because it reminds her of a movie government agent - all came to my aid. Maybe, as your name suggests, myrefugeisinthelord, G-d was keeping an eye on me, or at least the guys pushing the car.
I punched the brake locking the wheels (no ABS), threw the car sideways to the right, slammed it into second gear (don't worry, it ALWAYS grinds like that!), and jumped on the accelerator. As soon as I felt some 'forward' momentum moving towards the right lane, I repeated the same maneuver in the other direction to the left, save the shift since I stayed in second.
Lady Luck, a miracle, and an angel all conspired to let me miss both cars, all of the guys pushing the car, the barrier, and stay on the road. In any circumstance, I would have stopped had I been thinking to make sure nobody got hurt, and even possibly offer help with the stalled car, but I don't think I processed any of the event until I was a mile down the highway. I knew it happened, but there was just zero rational thought happening then.
When I got home thanks to adrenaline let down, I ended up crying for half an hour for no particular reason, and then immediately fell asleep.
I can only assume the eye's natural blind spot was the cause for me missing the cars in the first place, because I can't really otherwise account for how I missed them otherwise. I would never suggest I also somehow made it through all that on skill alone, and all I can say is "Yeah, that really just happened."
"Once again, Zatara, G-d sees you out the corner of his eye." Jacapo - The Count of Monte Cristo
Wow... that was a long post.