There’s a Utah repo guy on YouTube. Watch how easy and fast he can back up to, lift, and drive away with a car. In some, he’s driving what looks no more interesting than a black Ram dually with a topper on the back. The guts are all hidden. No kill switch or fooling with the coil wire is going to even slow down somebody with the right equipment. A kill switch, hidden or not, will keep the idiot kid from down the street from joyriding your car. So will keeping the keys in your pocket, not leaving them in the ignition.
My two 32’s have kill switches. I put one in all my builds. My Oddesy battery has lasted 10 years and is still going strong in my tractor. I changed it this year since I needed a battery for my tractor anyway. It’s a good safety practice and would take a thief a bit more time while I get my 380 out!
GOOD idea. Ive put one in all cars for many years. There are nothing but pluses, and no negatives….the way I do this.
Two hidden kill switches going into my 65 Barracuda. I redid the whole harness so it'll be easy to hide the lead wires from/to the ECU and ballast (separately, so no easy Hotwire fix) for the cutoffs. They'll be hidden up under the dash under the radio. Not needed for most days, but traveling absolutely. I also plan on doing a toe-kick battery kill lever under the rear fender when I move the battery to the trunk next month.
I run an HEI and installed a relay in the power supply wire to the HEI. I believe I used an original GM relay from a Fiero electric cooling fan. Four wires. Two are power in power out to the HEI (meaning the relay is spliced into the power wire to the HEI) and two more wires. One to ground and one to my hidden switch. In my case, anyone can pop the hood and run a wire from the starter or battery directly to the HEI, bypassing my solenoid. I am just hoping that someone is going to enter my car, smash the steering column, be unsuccessful at starting it and move on. What would help even more is if I moved the battery to the trunk and installed a hidden switch to shut off the battery ... that way anyone gets under the hood, they won't find a power source to hotwire from. This is my daily so that is why I haven't moved the battery to the trunk ... I need the trunk space for other things.
I have one and believe they are important to a degree, if you live in or park around anything questionable yes do it, or drive something nobody wants.
All just layers to make another vehicle an easier target. Kill switches , manual trans, and removable steering wheels have served me well for 25 years
The Jalopy Journal
