Formula_Wolf

You know you can only read so much about how people tap the starter, break stearing columns and hammer or drill lock tumblers before they give way and turn, or just remove them! Fuel injection was cool with the resistor chip and vats that can shut off the fuel pump but what about us carb guys? There is enough fuel in the fuel bowl to get the car up the street and die in traffic, maybe even get in a wreck.

So my question to you is.. how are you going to stop someone for ripping you off? I currently have an air wolf alarm system that cost me 300 dollars back in the day and an old school club lol. Does anyone use those anymore? Anyway here are some ideas to prevent the engine from cranking and your call from rolling away.
> Hidden key that needs to be turned to power the fuel pump and starter
> Cap the positive power connection to the starter so someone cant tap it to start it, or fabricate a lock box around it with ventilation to prevent overheating
> Install a cheap low watt computer with a web cam that will start recording when motion is detected. Install optional network support via wifi connection or cell phone. The system could email or text your phone when your car is in trouble and upload the video's to a secure server, maybe even script it to call 911 with a grand theft auto report that speaks the a gps location. Now lets get crazy with it cause I'm an IT guy who thinks like that. For every wifi hotspot that your stolen car passes, it could report the location to you via text or integrated into another gps program that shows you live readings of the last hot spot locations. That or just buy a gps chip and have it report where the car is at all times. Ok, trying to keep this engine related because the main point is to stop the engine from starting.
> Hidden breaker switch that will remove the connection from the battery to all systems if someone makes an attempt to start the car improperly. The breaker could be in an iron lock box.

Any other ideas would be cool, please share but keep it related to the engine as we are in the engine board. I guess this could go into the electrical board too... oh well, trying here.

campin1983

iTrader: (4)

Whoah man! The webcam thing is pretty detailed. I'm an IT guy and I wouldn't have gone that far! Lol.

One thing to remember is no car is theft-proof. Given enough time, money and will, someone will take your car. You can't control their money and will, but you can control time. The longer it takes to steal your car, the more likely they are to head to someone else's. Clubs and alarm systems still work in that they cause thieves to take more time, thus making your car less appealing.

The most common, and perhaps the most effective way of making pretty darn sure that someone doesn't take off with your car is a hidden fuel switch. You simply splice in a switch to the fuel pump, and then put that switch in a hidden location. No pump, no go. Some people use the ash tray, some the center console, some hide it in weirder places than that.

Not only does the fuel switch keep the car from starting, but for the thief to overcome this problem he both 1) has to recognize that its a fuel switch and not a mechanical problem and 2) spend the time to find the switch. Chances are at this point, especially in a 3rd gen, the thief no longer finds the car worth the chance and abandons it.

1989IROC-Z5.7L

iTrader: (2)

Are you wanting something for everyday driving or storage?

Rolling Thunder

I think to really come up with the most effective anti-theft device however we really need to know how cars are stolen. I mean i highly doubt these cars are towed away because tow trucks are not exactly steath. Maby pushed to where a tow truck is waiting in a more consealed position although i dont even think this is likely. If this was the case wede just neet to find a way to make cars immoble. If people stealing these cars are relying on starting them then all we have to do is make them so difficult to start that it takes to long and they give up and leave befor they get caught. Kinda get the idea? Then onto the systems themselves well to me there is one fundamentle problem with anti theft systems and thats that all the documentation on how they work is available online or else where. For example I think the most effective is the factory VATS system's idea of dissableing the fuel injector pulse because there really isnt much of a way to get around that but the problem is anyone who knows about the system will see its not incredably difficult to bypass if you know how it works. So i think the key thing to a goot anti-theft system is to leave the thief totally clueless as to how it works. This mean to have a system that is not factory (or something in addition fto factory), hidden, and not to discuss how it works as word gets around. Next is obnoxiously loud alarms (that cannot be ignored) can put pressure on a thief so they dont have time to try and mess around and figure out why the cars not starting. There are 3 things that can stop a car from starting. Cutting the power to a fuel pump, Cutting power to the starter,and what i feel is most effective cutting power to the ignition. Problem is there are many cars with mechanical pumps that cant really be dissables and stick shift cars can be push started or the starter can be jumped with a screwdriver. An ignition system although can be jumped you first have to know thats what the problem is and then they have to come and be prepared with a jumper wire? Whoe does that? Especially if its 3 am and the alarm is blareing. And yet another problem arrises the common argument that no matter what you do to a car to make it not start it could always be pushed away or towed. So after thinking about it for a while i wondered if maby a set up could be made for the parking brake that would function like the lock out for the shifter in an automatic that dosnt allow you to take the car out of park without the key in place. In this case however it wouldnt allow you to release the parking brake without the key. Good luck pushing that away or trying to drive it without drawing some attention lol. However despite our best efforts anything that was made by man can be undone by man and so i think it is equally important to be prepared in the event that a car be stolen. First theres damage prevention. This would be how to prevent joy riding that will kill our cars by installing govenors (that can be turned off of course) and rev limiters to prevent damage in the event they are stolen. Finally theres theft recovery. This i havnt really had any sound ideas but i think this is most important of all.

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

The fuel kill switch works, but on a carb setup with a mech fuel pump, stopping this from pumping is a bit more difficult

You can put a kill switch in between the IGN to the coil and get the same effect on a carb car

Services like Lo-jack are often available, but the problem is the thief will cut out the unit and throw it aside. A solution for that would be to weld in a steel box to the undercarriage

Several PDs use bait cars to catch crooks by leaving a high value car in a area, but have a remote kill switch built in. The vehicle is tracked and once it nears a cop, the kill signal is sent and the immobilized vehicle rolls to a stop next to his worst nightmare

KatsCam

A friend of mine once hooked up electricity to his car after a rash of break-ins for his gear. The next time someone tried it, it knocked the thief on his ***. Heard him yelling from the second story of the apartment building.

KnottyBuoyz

iTrader: (2)

That's effective but you'd have to be careful, you might be held criminally accountable for doing it and causing harm even though the doofus is a thief. Worse yet what if he died?

Anyhow.....

What about a hidden switch that interrupts the neutral safety circuit? I ran into that last year in my boat when the switch in the controls worked itself loose and disengaged. It'd be super simple to mount a switch in the console box. Something like a momentary contact on/off button that wouldn't be as obvious as a toggle.

KatsCam

True. Especially nowadays. It was about 10 years ago that this happened. He only left it on there every night for a week, but it sure did the trick.

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (15)

tow trucks are a common means of theft, i mean, how many people would think anything of a tow truck picking up a car?

A kill switch of some kind is the way to go, but the issue is finding a place to put it where it will not be found, and thats not so far out of the way that its an inconvenience for you.

I have a kill switch for the fuel pump controller, car will run for a few seconds then die. Its hidden pretty well, but if you really looked for it, you could find it.

IROCZman15

iTrader: (25)

old thread...i know, but another method to safe guard the vehicle i use ..

the original owner (i am the second) had something called (or nicknames) a Chelsea alarm installed. It is a spring loaded locking mechanism that takes a circular key (like the kind u use to open vending machines) to operate. when you push the button in it pushes a cable that was connected to the hood and latches the hood closed. it also activates a wire that gets spliced into one of the wires going into the ignition module and cuts off all signal to the ignition module, so the car wont fire. works well. I removed the cable part that locked the hood because i got a fiberglass hood and thats not as strong as a metal one


something else i use is a product called a GPS snitch. they have a website. google GPS snitch or blackline gps. its a little thing about teh size of a cell phone that you can hide in the car and it will go dormant. you can then check its location on the internet or on your cell phone. you can set it to send you an email and or text if the gps starts moving and if it was not disarmed. therefore you get a text if someone steals your car.. unless tehy find the gps device and turn it off or remove it from the car. cool toy, expensive though