My 1997 F250 was stolen about a month ago. I just recovered it. They broke out the passenger side door lock to get in, busted the key ignition cylinder, jimmied off the VIN plate from the dash. No other damage that I have discovered yet. Without overdoing it (the truck is my daily driver with 310,000 miles) what advice do you have about either a hidden kill switch or keyless start? And how to restore my door sheet metal where the cylinder was jimmied out. I am thinking about deleting that key hole.

By the way, I looked at buying an identical replacement truck. This truck is worth 2X what I paid for it 10 years ago. Not sure why.

Thanks in advance for your input.



4x4 Turbo Diesel

 

An ON/OFF connected directly to the starter solenoid signal wire with the switch and wiring hiden where only you know where ots at.
Glad you got your rig back, there is a guy in the Superduty section that also got his stolen yesterday.

 

You may want to consider LoJack for it too, it is not that expensive.

 

 

Maybe use the Club?

 

 

LOL!

 

 

PHP Hydra chips have No Start position that a thief is very unlikely to figure out. Probably other chips have a similar anti theft position.
I also have a toggle switch on my electric fuel pump.

 

Bob, is the no start position #17? To be honest I've never played with it. The trouble with cutting the fuel pump is they can still start it and take off and just running it hard it will suck fuel and run. Hard on the injectors but its happened to me a couple times on the road and the only thing I noticed was a lot more noise. The starter defeat sounds better.

 

I have a TS Performance chip i got several years ago that has a no start position. It will turn over and glow plug light comes on . A thief would think it just wont start. I use it all the time. If you plug the key hole they will just break glass. We have such weak laws for car theft in Ak that vehicle theft is out of control in Anc. In some cases when caught in stolen vehicles they dont arrest them or take them in, just give them a court appearance. Need to catch them and get them out of the gene pool.

 

 

I did not know this. I have always thought -no fuel pressure , no start. Thanks

 

I've got an automatic transmission and therefore don't need the no-start-without-clutch-down protection. So, I found those no-start clutch switch wires just above where the clutch is normally located , cut them, and wired them to a hidden switch. When the switch is open, the engine won't turn over just as it wouldn't with the clutch up on a standard transmission.

Of course, the engine can be made to turn over by shorting the solenoid under the hood or perhaps even at the starter, but many times any complication will deter a thief.

 

Interesting, I didn't know those wires were there on a auto truck.