[old man jimmy]

Yes to both of your questions. But you would want to kick the switch on once in awhile to keep the battery charged. Don't let the dual batteries scare you. It's factory, and probably been doing fine for 35 years the way it was. Your problem came from not replacing the aux. when it died. Even then not often they do what yours did. But I would still put in a switch. But I'm old fashioned, I like mechanical things that I can control. Less problems.