Making a car difficult to steal

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Oldmanmopar said:
My cars were also stolen with a tow truck years ago. One a 70 340 Swinger came home over 20 years later by mistake . A Constable stole them . He would have never been a suspect. I bought it from a tow company and he came after the car never expecting I was who he stole it from that long ago. I still held the title. Not even knowing it was my car when I bought it back for parts without a title. Never recovered the 69 R/T.
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I remember you commenting on that. That had to be mixed emotions.
 
DionR said:
How about a box over the ECU and ballast so they can't power it?
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That's essentially "whut." But putting it in a tight box might restrict ventilation too much.

Probably easiest to knock a hole in the firewall, install a grommet, and mount the ECU up as high in the dash as you can get. If you run an auto, you can use the unused clutch rod hole for wiring. Then break power to the ECU with a hidden switch. With the harness taped up and the ECU "up there" most thieves would not bother.

Oldmanmopar mentioned GPS. It might be even simpler, I have not "kept up." Many of you have "family" cell plans. Take one of your spare phones, set it up to track it, and disable all sounds. Some phones you can hide up under the dash and power with a battery.

LoJack is a non deal 'far's I'm concerned. There's no LoJack service around here for hundreds of miles, it's a "local thing," and if the car is towed somewhere that there's no LoJack, it won't do any good.
 
I'm thinking someone needs to come up with a system like a invisible leash. If you car ever leaves the proximity of the receiver, it sets off the alarm!
 
How about locking hood pins? Or are they too easy to bust off?

How about the steering lock in the column? Are they defeating that, too? Did Bud's Demon ('72) not have that?
 
Wireless tracking tags are pretty common and inexpensive now. They can alert you the instant the car moves and then show where it is. They start at $15 but only work within range of your wireless, helpful to let you know its moving, but you really need one like for a dog that works anywhere in cell phone service and then you need a monthly or annual fee.
 
Thought about the negative wire off the coil going to ground through a relay, and I can see how to defeat that with a jumper just as easily as powering the ignition system and engaging the starter.

My conclusion is, if they get under the hood, it really doesn't matter what you do, it is easily defeatable. Yes 67Dart273, you were right, sorry I had to come to the conclusion on my own, too hard headed at times.

So, I think the only reasonable soultion that isn't overkill is to lock down the hood somehow and put in a starter kill switch of some type. It wont work on a thief with a tow truck, but it is at least some insurance against someone hot wiring the car and drive off. Not fullproof, but better than stock.

So, now to figure out how to lock the hood.
 
BTW, as I recall, the pictures from the security camera when Bud's Demon was stolen showed the hood up, reinforcing that they probably went under the hood to hotwire it and knew what they were doing and how to do it quickly.

Ok, went back and looked and maybe the hood wasn't up, can't tell for sure.
 
airwoofer said:
What if a person could get one of those "boots" they put on illegally parked car wheels?
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A "boot" for hi visibility and immobility,.. and a GPS..

But a good towtruck driver will have dolly's under it and towed away in less than 5 mins..
 
70 dollars. Not sure if anyone posted this. Briefly read it and the reviews. Appears to operate off text messaging or pager technology and gps. Has geo-fence feature as one of its activation features, will locate your vehicle and can remotely shut down your car too (probably has a relay, you can do what ever with it)

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Tracking-Drive-Vehicle-Tracker-System/dp/B008FLOWAU/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top"]Amazon.com: Tracking Drive Vehicle Car Tracker Gps/gsm/gprs System: GPS & Navigation[/ame]
 
If you build it with fiberglass parts, it will be difficult to steel....
 
You could always remove the coil wire to the distributor and keep it with you.

and then disconnect a couple other electrical components so it won't start.
 
krazykuda said:
You could always remove the coil wire to the distributor and keep it with you.

and then disconnect a couple other electrical components so it won't start.
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That it a hassle IMO. I don't want to have to open and close the hood every time I want to go somewhere. Although, you could always do like 63 morepar and put the coil where the radio goes lol
 
Rice Nuker said:
70 dollars. Not sure if anyone posted this. Briefly read it and the reviews. Appears to operate off text messaging or pager technology and gps. Has geo-fence feature as one of its activation features, will locate your vehicle and can remotely shut down your car too (probably has a relay, you can do what ever with it)

Amazon.com: Tracking Drive Vehicle Car Tracker Gps/gsm/gprs System: GPS & Navigation
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I may be wrong but that thing looks like it plugs into your OBD port. which none of us have minus Tin and a few others with modern engines swapped in.
 
I unplug my coil wire so if they do try to steal you might hear the car turn over and if they turn it over and it does not start they will flood the crap out of it pumping the gas.
 
I use a Ravelco device in my work vans since I'm on the road quite a bit. It's hard to explain, but it's essentially a second key that controls 2 devices such as the ingition box, fuel pump, or starter. There are no two alike so there are no master pinouts for a thief to get hold of either. If you want to read up on it here is a link to their site.

http://www.ravelco.com/index.html
 
UOP said:
I use a Ravelco device in my work vans since I'm on the road quite a bit. It's hard to explain, but it's essentially a second key that controls 2 devices such as the ingition box, fuel pump, or starter. There are no two alike so there are no master pinouts for a thief to get hold of either. If you want to read up on it here is a link to their site.

http://www.ravelco.com/index.html
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I've seen that. But it's pretty expensive and as I understand it, they wont sell you one without doing the install. Great idea, though, as long as the hood is locked.
 
I know a guy who made a fake coil wire out of a section of vacuum hose. He put a couple of old coil wire boots on the vacuum hose and put it in place of the coil wire and took the coil wire with him whenever he had to park the car for a while. Cheap & easy...
 
Run your neutral safety switch wire to the emergency brake light switch so that you have to put the emergency brake on to start the car. If the brake is off the last thing a thief will do is put the brake on when he's trying to make a quick getaway.
 
I haven't let this drop, I guess I'm just too dumb to let some things go.

So, been doing a lot of thinking on this and I've decided that I am going to move the battery to the trunk and use a Ford style starter solenoid (also in the trunk) to engage the starter. This doesn't completely remove power from under the hood, but even if they jumper to the ignition system off the alternator stud, it shouldn't allow for anyone to engage the starter. I guess someone could bring their own battery, but I don't expect that many car thieves walk around with a battery under their arm, and if they knew to bring one then they will probably bring a roll-back instead and steal the car regardless of what else I do.

In addition, I am wiring in a switch inline with the starter circuit. I've left off most of the details of how (this is the internet), but will say it is a magnetic switch rather than a push button style. So, as long as the magnet is in the right place, the circuit will close and the car will start, and when I want to disable the car I can grab the magnet and put it in my pocket. Need to figure out how to shield that, though, so I don't demagnetize the cards and such in my wallet.

What I wish I could find is an RFID relay of some sort that just closes the circuit when a fob is in the car, but the only ones I've found are kind of expensive. Shouldn't be hard to swap in the future, though.

And yes, I am leaving the amp gauge in place for now. I know it could be an issue later, and if I do more upgrades I will probably bypass it, but for now I am running a stock system with no additional loads so I am going to leave it alone. Not putting a volt gauge in the dash is one less project right now and I don't see that it is a real issue at this point in time.

So, here is a clip of my proposed wiring changes. Any input? See anything I missed? Wire sizes seem ok?

Last thought would be to add a buzzer or trigger the horn or something by using a SPDT relay and use the NC post to send power to a noise maker and the NO post to the solenoid when the circuit is closed.

BatteryRelocation_zpsc4f807be.jpg
 
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