The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Anti Theft / Kill Switch ?

Looking for suggestions / ideas to prevent bad guys from hot-wiring my baby. Door lock is pretty weak / hood latches don't lock. Running a 327 / 12 volt system. Thanks.

Before all the pessimists chime in about if they want it, they'll get it...........

An easy way is run a wire from the points side of the coil to a hidden switch then to ground. The downside is if they leave their hot wire on when they walk off it may burn up your wiring before it burns out the ballast resistor.

Another way is a battery disconnect switch. But if you have an exposed battery, like in a Task Force or later, they can see it and jump around it with a jumper cable.

If you want something easy then you can just run a switch between the wire that goes from the ignition switch to the coil, or from the ignition switch to the starter. If you have an electric fuel pump then you could add a switch between the fuel pump and its 12 volt supply.

13BAce, apparently you don't understand the term "hot wire". When a thief hot wires a car he bypasses the ignition switch with a wire from battery to the coil.

With the points side of the coil grounded the engine won't run even if hot wired. In normal operation the coil fires when the points open. When grounded it can't fire.

The electric fuel pump idea will work. If it has a carb, the vehicle will start, but it won't run long.

Most people have great difficulty starting our truck as it has a manual choke - they just can't figure it out!

Park next to a Toyota of Honda - they will steal those first as the thieves know how to deal with them!

Good one...A floor starter and a manual choke will usually fool the young ones

Cletis;
Your fix sounds interesting. What if you have a 12V system and a coil with built in resistor. Any difference? What happens if I add a mini HEI from Langdon's. How would I wire it then? Thanks in advance.

Sorry cletis, I read the title, but I guess I didn't read the entire post carefully.

The column shifters will also confuse some people. :p

That's my philosophy. The type of person who is stealing a car will usually have no interest in an old truck; and the type of person interested in an old truck will probably not be a thief.

Right on!

I'm planning to wire the horn to the floor starter switch with a disconnect hidden under the dash. That should give them a surprise.

You should add an extra horn for that; but put it inside the truck.

Not knowing 40 chevys at all... I welded up a simple set up, a couple pieces of flat stock (& padlocked together) to my under hood latch so the lever could not move to open the hood.

When I re-wiring the 51 3100, I also added a 1-form C relay to a common switch. The directions said to use the heater fan switch but I added a two stage safety/fog lamp switch to the dash. You now have to pull the switch out to the first ''safety'' position to start the truck (2nd pos. is fog lamps) otherwise the voltage from the tampered hot-wired key switch would go to the HORN and blow my FIAMMS @ 130dB.
Send me your fax # and I'll send you a copy of the wiring diagram.
It's easy.

For those using loud horns as an anti-theft device: I recommend plastic seat covers or Scotchgard!

Grounding the point side of the coil would be the hot setup but install an inline circuit breaker so if they leave it Hot wired it wont fry anything

In addition to the relay to the horn, tape a cherry bomb or an M-80 to a 1-Lb. can of cayenne pepper under the seat. With a little ingenuity, your horn relay can also power an electric ignitor for the M-80. Very few car thieves can keep their mind on their business with a faceful of red pepper!

I used a slight modification of this idea when cars stored at my high school automotive shop were getting vandalized. I took a 2-foot length of 1" PVC pipe and found a piece of broomstick that was a snug slip fit inside it. A piece cut from a truck innertube was duct-taped to the pipe, then the broomstick was pulled out until it gave the rubber a good stretch. I drilled a hole for a cotter pin to block the broomstick in the cocked position, filled the pipe with ground cayenne, painted everything flat black, and duct-taped the whole works to the steering wheel, aimed at the driver's door. A piece of monofilament fishing line from the door to the cotter pin completed the setup. It got tripped a few days later. One of my chronic troublemakers didn't come to school for 3 days, and when he returned, he had some very irritated-looking eyes, and a broomstick-sized bruise on his forehead! No more problems!

Jerry

always thinking hotrod,
always one step ahead of the pack.

I LIKES IT. ... but one hell of a mess to clean up, but that would do it.
I'd love to see the wet look is their eyes.

LOL

Using the original Electolock ignition with the armored cable to the coil would be enough theft deterance for most thieves along with the fact, as previously mentioned, that they probably won't know how to start it anyway. Not many thieves have any interest in driving attention getting old vehicles; too limited a market.

Baldy

The other night on Mythbusters, they proved that a 22 round used as a fuse will bake off with enough amperage. Their story went that a guy had tried it in his truck when he blew a fuse and considering the fuse block position in his truck, when it baked off it... changed his life. At least he won't be having any kids.

Hey guys how about this: Just pull the rotor. How many crooks will be carrying a rotor for your truck. If they really want it they will bring their own flatbed and it will be gone!

or have a dummy coil wire to the distributor to put on when it is parked.

Had one stolen about 10yrs ago..They got it started, went around the corner where there was an enclosed truck with the ramps out and loaded it up..I thought it would be pretty easy for the police to see the vehicle traveling out of town, but not in that truck..They sure knew what they were doing..Haven't see it since, and didn't find out about the truck until a witness saw it getting loaded and didn't think "what's wrong with this picture" Duh!

Dont tell everybody about the rotor and it works.So does the fake coil wire. Grounding the coil doesnt work as most thiefs will ripe the wire off the coil and hook it to the hot side of the horn relay or alt or? Next if you dont have a foot starter they use the dipstick or break a radio ant off and jump the solinoid. No tools req. Dont go doing anything dangerous either or your could land you butt in court and you will loose.You cant not protect your propert by indangering someone. I say hang em but the courts say diif. Your lucky Hot Rod that some idiot parent did not sue you.
I made a nice pedal lock that goes up to the steering wheel allmost like the club. Forgot about it one day and bag i hurt the heck out of my knees. LOL I dont have a camera but it was real easy to build.

I like that pedal lock idea, couldn't you just make a lock for the emergency pedal after it's engaged?..Good ideas coming here

DJ,

When a fake coil wire was advised, I think he meant the HT wire, not the +v wire.

Baldy thats what i also meant as in vac hose with 2 boots.LOL Grounding the coil is the oldest trick in the book and most crookes just rip the wires off the + side of the coil and hook up there own. Not a smart idea to ground a HEI. Be real careful with that HEI from eng supply,mine would not drive the oil pump.I wont go into details but there are better ways. Good way to blow up a motor. I went with pertronix ignitor II in my 48.

maybe keep the rotor in your pocket

All I did on my truck was installed 4 identical on-off-on toggle switches in the dash;one had to be up,next one had to be center,next had to be up,last one had to be down to complete the ignition circuit. I'd just flip all of 'em down when I parked it.Being marked cab markers,driving lights,dome light,and electric fuel pump,who'd take the time to figure out the combination? It was hard to bypass because the switches were boxed in with a panel that went from the lower edge of the dash to the firewall. I connected the firewall end with a hinge attached on the inside,and used two tool box lock cylinders to attach the dashboard end.
I figured if they want it bad enough to run that gauntlet,they've earned it. Seems to me,the whole key is surprise-throw something at 'em they haven't seen or don't know about. They have a time crunch to deal with,so anything you do that makes 'em spend a lot of time on getting your truck will cause 'em to give up and look for easier pickings. They don't want to get caught in the middle of trying to figure out your puzzle.
A buddy wired the fuel pump on his 50 chev.3100 through the parklights.If somebody took it in daylight,no fuel pump;if the took it at night,no fuel pump.If they decide to be cool and go cruising at dusk,well,maybe.
Another idea I saw used is like a knife switch mounted inside the bottom of the dash,with a small hole in the sheetmetal,where you'd insert a steel pin.Without the pin,no power.(Also works as a kill switch) Any number of different ways to screw up a truck thief. Be creative!
Speed
BTW-my favorite way is the silent alarm with mercury switches.Somebody messes with your truck-it pages you,so you can go watch them work while you wait for the cops to arrive.
Added benefit-I NEVER drove it while intoxicated,and not always by choice.

You don't happen to have a wiring diagram for that 4 switch setup do you? I like it, Steve

what wire did you have the switches too? if it is just the power to the coil, that can be easily bypassed. if not, then it may be a good idea. the fuel pump kill switch is still the beast i think. i will probably put 2 or 3 on my truck, but the best thing to do is to make sure you make your insurance payments.

I used a similar setup, with 3 rotary switches with about 5 positions each. There are hundreds of possible combinations, like a combination lock. Just wire the switches in series, where all 3 have to be in the correct position for the ignition to work. The "Tach" terminal on a GM HEI can be grounded to disable the ignition, without doing any damage at all. That's how a tune-up tester shorts out individual cylinders while the engine is running during a power balance test. A simple toggle switch attached to ground and the tach terminal will work, but the 3-switch rotary setup in the power side is better. (or both!)
Jerry

So, on the rotary switches, like a 3 position, If I wanted say a 3,1,2 to start, I would run the hot wire to the first switch in the #3 position, out of that to the second switch to the #1 position, and to the third switch to the #2 position, and out of that back to hot? That way the switches would have to be in the 3,1,2 positions to start?

boy oh boy are things getting deep here

ya just gotta love it

such 'injuniuty'

Yep, you've got the idea. Just be sure to enclose the back side of the switches so somebody can't look at them and figure out the sequence. The more positions, the better, so there are more possible combinations.
Jerry

Thanks Jerry, and I think I will label them for some things that you mentioned..Steve

what wire are yall putting these switches on?

The Hay wire.

i only ask, because if it is the ignition wire to the coil, that is easily bypassed when hotwired.

1-ton, pay attention, now!- - - - - -So far, we've discussed the hot wire to the coil, the coil-to-distributor wire on a conventional point-type distributor, the tach terminal on a HEI system, and the wire to the electric fuel pump, on rigs so equipped. About the only thing we haven't discussed is a 50,000-volt hookup to the underside of the driver's seat that kicks in two minutes after the engine is started, and fries the scumbag's cajones! (I can wire that one, too!) Yes, just about any safety system can be bypassed, and a determined thief will find a way. All we're doing is trying to delay him long enough to get the crosshairs on the .30-06 lined up!
Jerry