Yes, I'm worried about it. I park at a lot of lonesome trailheads, and spend some time every year in the Los Angeles area, where anything half-nice is at risk. Bastards.

I'm not a big fan of alarms, and when they stole my friends Honda car, they tossed The Club out on the lawn so he could use it on his next car.

On my previous gas cars, I did a simple splice off the hot side of the coil, with a hidden kill switch, kinda' up under the dash. A spot you can't see just by glancing, but that your fingers can find.

A paranoid guy could put a switch somewhere hard to reach, like behind the glove box, under the passenger seat, I was even looking at the bottom of the battery tray as a possible spot.

A throw-pole type battery dis-connect offers mild anti-theft, forcing them to open the hood, but it's also great for battery drain and safer service. How many times have you done work around the fan when you should have disconnected the battery?

So, the question:

Where is there a spot to wire in a kill switch? Maybe in the column, but I hate tearing into any column, for any reason. To use wires coming out of the column would be a nightmare for me, correctly indentifying that many wires, by color off of a schematic, tearing into that part of the wiring harness, well, there has to be something better.

I was looking in the manual, I see relays: auto shutdown, fuel pump, starter. Could any of these be used, somehow? Being brand new to deisels, I have no clue how much of this works.

Any input on this subject is deeply appreciated.

 

Connecting an ON/OFF toggle anywhere and splicing in the control feed or ground circuit of the ASD relay or FUEL PUMP relay will work.
I have some diagrams of relay wiring and how they are properly wired. I can draw a diagram of a circuit with the switch you need and email it or post it on here. I can't do it here at work now, but I can do it later tonight when I get home.

 

For maximum anti-start deterrence, I would make a little inconspicuous wire clip that you could use to hold back the manual fuel shut-off lever on the injection pump (it is the lever on the side of the pump with nothing attached to it, sort of underneath the AFC. The only way someone could figure that out is if they were familiar with the VE pump . . . You could even make it run back to the bell crank for the accelerator linkage, so it looked like a piece of stock hardware.

On the other hand, they could kill your starter and battery trying to get it going, and it wouldn't be as convenient as a switch in the cab.

 

When I first bought my truck, there was a small device installed on the knee bolster, between the hood release and the brake release levers. At first I didn't have a clue as to what it was. It looks like a small flat six connector socket that holds a piece of printed circuit board. The circuit board is removable. On the circuit board, two of the six connectors are joined to two others such that when the circuit board is installed in the socket, there are two continuous circuits. These wires are then wired into the starter relay circuit. If you start the truck, and pull the board, the engine continues to run. However, if you pull the board when the engine is not running, you can't start the truck because there is no circuit, and the starter won't turn over.

When you pull the board, the socket looks like one of those diagnostic plugs. The advantage to this is that it looks like it has nothing to do with an anti-start device when the plug is pulled, but even if you know what the plug does, you don't know which wires to join to make the circuits. It also stops people draining the battery from trying to start the engine.

I hope my description makes sense?

It looks a very professional set-up, but I have no idea if it was a bought item or something that someone fashioned to together. I imagine you could do the same with any multiple-contact plug and socket from Radio Shack.

John

 

John H

I have only seen 1 of those things before. Those are rare.

I think anyone with some ideas for anti-theft device should send PM's instead of posting it here. It sorta defeats the purpose when usually there are at least as many "guests" on the board as users.

My .02

 

think if i had to park my truck in the shady side of LA id take my fuel filter with me when i leave so the truck suffers vaporlock and a lack of fuel a block down the road.

putting a switch under the dash seems kinds obvious to me. just unplug something discrete under the hood. id find it unlikely they would pop the hood and start tracing wires. theres too many nice honda civics and ford F150s out there to steal. I dont think theres alot of ricers out there willing to pay top dollar for parts off and old dodge pickup.

 

Sell it to me and you wont have to worry anymore Not to be a black cloud, but if they want it that bad... well you know. I have used vending machine key type switches to disable the ignition and placed them in the fender and locked the hood. I have seen steering locks taht go on the drag link, but that would be a pain to remove and install every time. I silent alarm with a pager to you would be good so you could sneak up and beat the S...T out of them would be my choice.

 

If you're leaving the truck sitting in a bad place, just disconnect the wire on the shut down solenoid it's easy to do and not easy to figure out unless you know the truck type well. (of course it won't stop them from ripping your stereo out)

How many of us with these trucks have looked around for the reason our trucks have died/stuttered, and been frustrated? Then you find out it was just a crappy little wire sitting on the pump, and you're fine. I like any solution that is free.

Unfortunately they don't allow lethal alarm systems, which is really what theives deserve! ...I guess it would suck if you set it off by accident too!

Good luck with your efforts!

 

Here's a good thread...
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ht=kill+switch

 

I know here in Canada at Radio Shack or any computer store has ON/OFF switches with keyed locks just like a passenger airbag switch or a computer lock-out switch. It just has two terminals and it is splice in-line between the starter relay.

If you mount one of these keyed switches and cut the BROWN/YELLOW wire at the starter relay. It's shown in the diagram at the top as T41 18BR/YL. That is the ground circuit of the starter relay.
Lengthen the two ends of the wire you cut and attach them to the terminals on the keyed switch mounted in the cab on the dash or hidden (WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE)

 

When I bought my truck I told the dealer that it had to have an immobilizer before I drove it off the lot. My instructions were that even if the ignition switch was ripped out completely, that it must be impossible to start the truck. They took the truck down the road and had the immobilizer installed. Now with it activated, the starter will not work and even if you pushed the truck and tried to start it, it will not fire.
I'm happy with it.

 

This place is great, what a bunch of good ideas. I will just have to pick which style.

Since Rammer64 posted such a clear diagram, I'm thinking of doing it like that.

Yes, I agree, if a pro wants to steal your rig, not much can prevent that.

But most car thieves aren't that professional, and just making it hard enough that they will go on to the next one is enough to make me feel much better about things.

 

The same process can be applied to just about any device. You can disable the ASD relay, crank sensor, safety neutral switch, fuel solenoid. Disabling the ground circuit of these devices will work. You can disable multiple devices on the same switch.
ASD relay.... cut the ground wire circuit K51 20DB/YL
CRANK SENSOR... cut the ground wire circuit
FUEL SOLENOID....may be a little more difficult if internally grounded through case
SAFETY NEUTRAL SWITCH....cut the ground wire circuit T41 8BR/YL
If you want, you can also disable the positive side of the relays, but you want to do it from the ignition feed of the relays and NOT the battery feed of the relays. The numbers, wires and information listed is just references. They may not be totally accurate because of different applications or somebody previously splicing wires. These are the numbers, colors, wires listed in the factory manual.
Most relays have standard terminals. Most relays from auto parts stores have BOSCH stamped on them with standard numbers on the bottom.
#85.... = positive ignition feed (A in diagram)
#86.... = negative or control (C in diagram)
#30.... = positive battery feed (B in diagram)
#87.... = output positive feed from #30 (D in diagram)
some relays will also have and #87a which is the positive feed from #30 when the relay is off.
#87= normally open circuit
#87a= normally closed circuit
You can connect the ground #86 to suitable ground and use #85 to turn the relay on or off. It doesn't matter. 6 of 1or 1/2 dozen of the other.

 

Ooops! Sorry if I started something.

John