almost lost her yesterday...

[badchev69]

I never would have guessed it would ever happen to me but as i came home for lunch yesterday i found broken glass next to my 69' shortie in my driveway. Upon closer inspection i found someone had tried to break the door lock and failed, but suceeded at destroying my door. They moved on to break the wing window and got er open. Once inside they tore the wireing off the back of the ignition and tried to hot wire it. Thanks to the POS optima battery in it (which was dead for the 100th time) they got nowhere and left. People really piss me off....

It spends almost its whole life in a garage and i moved it to the driveway last weekend for a little extra space in the garage because i was painting the new baby's room and had to move some furniture out there. Someone obviously saw it on my quiet street and decided they needed it more than me.

Its in there best interest it never fired because the whole neighborhood would have heard it. It has 3.5" exhaust and 10 series flows with no tailpipes. Measured at 102 db at idle and 30 feet away and 120 db at 2500 rpm... I think it happened late that last night and i didn't notice it leaving for work at 5am... They left all my cd's, stereo and tools in it. They obviously just wanted the truck.

Please be careful guys! I almost lost mine and hope it never happens again. I feel so violated!!! quiet town too!! needless to say its back in the garage to stay.... unfortunantly my 72 k5 is a sitting duck out there. Time to invest in cameras and another shop....

[Little Red]

Wow, Sorry to hear that, but glad they didn't get it! I think I'll be installing a kill switch in mine soon. I'm pretty big on them, but haven't done it to this truck yet.

[msgross]

A hidden kill switch would be the cheapest insurance, do you have classic car insurance to cover it?

[swamp rat]

Glad the battery foiled the attempt! I git to agree on the lockout switch, now its got me thinking as well.

[cam.man67]

Gotta love those Optima batteries! I'm glad they got no further than they did.

Now, regarding this will switch, has anybody put one in, and if so, do y'all have a wiring diagram I'd be able to check out? I'd hate this to happen to me.

[yote1234]

keep the optma,dont get a diehard....

[72 Super]

I am glad they didn't get your truck. Sorry to hear about the damage though.

Ray

[msgross]

There are a few ways to put a kill switch in... a large amp one for the main battery power, or a small switch interrupting the power to the HEI/distributor.

[69 longhorn]

When I park mine in the lot @ the store, I leave the keys in the switch! But there is a pretty little pit bull in the truck(she thinks it HERS)......let some mofo challenge that crazyAl

[badchev69]

Yes the kill switch is defiantly going in... should be easy since my msd box sits behind the glove box. I also like the pit bull idea! my little wiener dog can be intimidating but im shure not as well as a big dog HA!

[Hubscrub]

glad to hear they didn't get it.... thieves really pee me off

[tcb-1]

and hide the kill switch GOOD! a few seconds looking for it could make the difference between stolen or just tampered with.....

[sams60gmc]

Wow! Glad you didn't lose her. Sucks things like this happen in small towns! I hate leaving my stuff outside.

[treveiger]

Maybe look at getting a gun too because if it happens again and catch them in the act make it know to them that doing that isnt acceptable(maybe gets some salt shot lol). A friend of mine got his suv stolen out of his driveway when he was home a few nights ago, it was 3 young kids that couldnt even drive and they escaped from a detention center near buy and long story short they went into his house without him noticing it and grabed the keys and took off but the cops were on to them right away and ending up being a high speed chase and ending in the kids losing control and flipping it 4 times and now nobody will admit fault on letting them escape an say there not going to pay for it, but of course somebody will once he gets a lawyer. Nothings safe anymore...

[wwotr]

Originally Posted by cam.man67

Gotta love those Optima batteries! I'm glad they got no further than they did.

Now, regarding this will switch, has anybody put one in, and if so, do y'all have a wiring diagram I'd be able to check out? I'd hate this to happen to me.

My Optima Yellow top has served me well for almost a year now.
My Truck has sat in the Garage up to 3 Months at a time, with no starting up.

Hit the switch and she cranks right over.

I just applied to JC Taylor or $13K worth of "Agreed Value Insurance".
Submitted the application & Photos, last week. They say it takes 7-10 days for them to review/Accept the Vehicle.
There's no consoling you know, but I'm sure in the future, you'll be thankful it was some "Repairable" work, and that you still HAVE your Truck, as opposed to looking at pictures because it was stolen.

[pat 70/71]

I'm really glad the truck is still yours! battery disconnect is a must. lets all learn from this. they could still tow it if they want it bad enough. all the best, Pat

[mrein3]

Here is another trick my Dad uses.

He has had a full sized Ford van since the 70s. The older ones like he has have wing vents like on our trucks. He wires a flasher on a seperate circuit that is "armed" with a plane old toggle switch hidden on the vehicle. When armed, if the dome light comes on it triggers the circuit with the flasher that directs the current to the horn. In other words when armed, if some thief opens the door, the horn honks on and off until you turn the system off.

Then you leave your wing vents unlatched so when the thief comes prowling along and sees your wing vent unlatched he or she thinks easy truck. They push the wing vent open (no damage), reach in and roll the window down (no damage), unlock the door (no damage), open the door (no damage), then crap on themselves when the horn starts honking.

One night when I still lived at home the van started honking. When we got out there the thieves were long gone but two other neighbor's vehicles had screwdrivers and other tools on the roofs of their cars. Not only did my Dad save his van that night he saved two other cars.

On older Ford vans the sliding door didn't have a dome light switch. We simply put the toggle inside the van and made the last exit through the sliding door makeing sure to lock it and leave a wing vent open. On a truck you could easily mount the switch under a bed rail. Or if you have a tool box like me you cound mount a swich in there and make sure to lock the tool box. If a thief happened to be watching you it would look like you were simply locking up your stuff in the box.

Cheap. Easy. Effective. My kind of mod. And remember thieves are stupid. They don't care about you or your stuff. If you make it so they don't break anything on the way in, you're better off in the long run. If you got a kill switch and they smash the hell out of the door and window you gotta fix all that stuff. Even a trick top dollar alarm will have the perp breaking some of your stuff before it starts to work.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

May look into getting the grant removable wheel option also I have on in my yota and love it..

[mooseknuckles]

I don't know why, but for some reason the PO had put a inline fuse in one of the wires that runs off of the block on the firewall, and don't ask how I know, but if this fuse is blown it will not turnover or start what so ever! I changed it to the blade type fuses and just pop it out when I'm away for any length of time.

[firedog]

that is probably for the hei power thats what i use for a easy theft deterrent... if my truck is aired out no tow truck is gna get under the front and it will take a bottle jack to get it up high enuff and then i take the inline fuse out for the hei so they cant drive off with it

[red71cheyenne]

Shotguns scare the crap out of people. On the 71, I have a fuse I just pull for the HEI. You can crank all day. I leave the battery disconnected at the house too. So far we have been lucky and the tweakers only take the spare change out of your car.

Glad they didn't get your truck and now you have an excuse to spend some money on it.

[Little Red]

Originally Posted by cam.man67

Gotta love those Optima batteries! I'm glad they got no further than they did.

Now, regarding this will switch, has anybody put one in, and if so, do y'all have a wiring diagram I'd be able to check out? I'd hate this to happen to me.

No diagram needed, just depends on where you wanna hide the switch and what you want to diable. You can either make it so it doesn't crank, or make it so it will crank, but has no spark and will not start (Thats what I do)
You can cut into the "crank" wire in the ignition switch itself, using a sinple test light to locate which wire it is, or cut the wire on the negitive side of the coil. Just cut the wire you chose and run each end to your hidden switch ..thats it.

Remember, no matter what you do, it's only a deterent ...if they want it bad enough they'll tow it away.

[ChevLoRay]

Last week on AFV, one of the top videos was of a vehicle where there was a trick played on the owner. His buddies had wired the horn so that it was fed 12V whenever you put your foot on the brake. Easy concept. How many people would think to avoid using the brake when they're trying to swipe the vehicle. You could use this trick plus interrupting the voltage to the HEI or distributor. When the perps would try to take it, the interruped circuit to the distributor would be aided by the horn honking when you hit the brake. You could wire it with a double-pole, double-throw switch that would accomplish both feats with one movement of the switch. Flip the switch one way and it would disable the distributor and set up the brake-controlled horn. Flip it the other way and the systems would be restored so that the distributor would function and the horn trick would be disabled. You could even wire in a siren or other loud alarm device to the brake-controlled switch. Anything to startle the would-be thief and give you a little more time.

[mr48chev]

That's another reminder that everyone of us should install at least one or more theft deterrents on our trucks and think about making the startup process a both hands process.
Adding a hidden push button or momentary on toggle switch in the neutral safety switch wiring might be one simple step.

The wire to my HEI from the fuse block tends to disconnect it's self if you hit a rough bit of road but pulling that wire off and tucking it up out of the way would probably stop most of the amateurs who would be after the truck.

Maybe even a hidden Ford solenoid installed in the main cable to the starter with a separate push button to activate it. Tucked in under the battery box it wouldn't be noticeable but would kill power to the starter unless it was engaged.

About 10 years ago I had a mid 60's Chev flatbed as a work truck. some previous owner had installed a multiple tank switch on it but it only had one tank with the other inlets plugged off. Switched in any other direction besides the correct one it shut the fuel off. It took me a bit of head scratching to figure out why it would start and run when you poured gas in the float bowl but wouldn't pull gas from the tank that had plenty in it. The switch was under the seat but I was under the truck tracing the fuel line when I discovered it.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by mrein3

Here is another trick my Dad uses.

When armed, if the dome light comes on it triggers the circuit with the flasher that directs the current to the horn. In other words when armed, if some thief opens the door, the horn honks on and off until you turn the system off.

Only problem with this is, 90% of our trucks don't have automatic dome light circuits...

LockDoc