Kill switch

OnTheReel

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2022
Messages
658
Reaction score
490
Location
Wisconsin
Just another way to get the job done. I’ve seen people do kill switches on the fuel pump, e-brake, etc. This one I cooked up uses an off the shelf harness to interrupt power to the starter button. This allows retention of the remote start, and no wires to cut. Just about everything can be defeated but I figured this would at least add another layer of “f you” to the key-cloners. And 100% reversible to stock with no footprint at all. Primarily intend to use it at hotels and when I’m on the water with my boat. I’d be really pissed to come back to no truck and no trailer.

Anyway, this is the harness:


Guessing it’s for some kind of remote start system but I cut 90% of it off anyway.
63D02EDB-3423-429D-86E7-E6E6B83F00D5.jpeg

Peeling back the onion, these 6 pin connectors are what we’re after:
D77EE7D6-9445-486C-A142-512D85705981.jpeg

Note that only 4 pins are populated in the truck’s harness, so I de-pinned the blue and orange wires. Dunno what they do, but they ain’t there in the TRX. In this aftermarket harness, there are also long wires teed into the blue, white with green stripe, and black wires. I got rid of the tees and soldered just the two ends back to each other as shown. Note that the one wire has a green stripe on the male plug and red stripe on the female, but they do go together and are in the same pin position.
2A1F046B-E39F-4672-B439-57CBBB314CF8.jpeg

I then extended the red wire leads to go out to a kill switch using the excess wire from this kit.
9510484F-2B81-4AB0-ADAA-6EDE4DE7315B.jpeg

Next up is the truck-side of the work. I pulled the knee buster down, and reached up to push the starter switch out of it’s hole. There are two tabs on top and one on the bottom.
D0C29EC4-B123-453A-9EEE-66C3EC2951F1.jpeg

From there it was a matter of installing my tee harness.
53DF52E9-E4D3-4BE3-8707-A0B8F4935AA4.jpeg

I taped over the connector to make it a little less apparent and harder to disassemble. Anyone who’s dealt with Tesa tape knows it’s a bitch to unpeel. Obviously the way to defeat it is to unplug the tee harness and plug the factory harness directly back into the switch. To avoid that possibility, you can hardwire without the tee harness. That would be more secure, but I just didn’t want cut wires. I never ever do, and won’t start now. You do what you want.
2AE97A76-259B-483A-A696-1D697D0B5A0E.jpeg

Last step is the kill switch. Any simple SPST on/off switch works. I used a high quality Carling marine switch because I just didn’t want problems. I soldered my wires right to switch and heat shrunk and taped over them.

You can put the switch anywhere you want. I found a pretty neat location. Very difficult to find while being comically easy to reach. The steering column has a leather thing around it and a hole where the tilt adjuster lever passes through. I pulled the headlight switch (just pull!), and mounted the kill switch to a brace that is facing the adjuster lever. I have the switch positioned so I can reach in the hole in the leather and flip it. The switch does not restrict the adjustment lever movement and is totally invisible. Switch is on the metal bracket with the slot running down it.
DF20F5AA-460D-4625-B210-4ADFBE270087.jpeg

F965CB59-8D96-49CE-AE94-9A4BA15CF1DB.jpeg

This is the view from below:
3F742D4C-D5EB-45A4-8F3A-AD7A0D73C227.jpeg
Yes, you can kinda see it, but it’s way up there and not obvious. You wouldn’t be likely to find it in a rush, and you wouldn’t be able to feel it or reach it from below. Good enough for me.

Now, I did highlight it’s weaknesses, this is not the perfect solution. I am aware. I just figure for $70 this is way better than nothing. It is easy to install with no factory wires to cut and could supplement other security measures such as my S&W 500 mag. Or maybe a dummy OBD2 port, wheel club, etc. I’m not super paranoid, just wanted to do a little something.

Videos of operation:
 

Shaggy

Well-known member
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Joined
Sep 28, 2021
Messages
707
Reaction score
462
Location
Arizona
Just another way to get the job done. I’ve seen people do kill switches on the fuel pump, e-brake, etc. This one I cooked up uses an off the shelf harness to interrupt power to the starter button. This allows retention of the remote start, and no wires to cut. Just about everything can be defeated but I figured this would at least add another layer of “f you” to the key-cloners. And 100% reversible to stock with no footprint at all. Primarily intend to use it at hotels and when I’m on the water with my boat. I’d be really pissed to come back to no truck and no trailer.

Anyway, this is the harness:


Guessing it’s for some kind of remote start system but I cut 90% of it off anyway.
View attachment 3011
Peeling back the onion, these 6 pin connectors are what we’re after:
View attachment 3012
Note that only 4 pins are populated in the truck’s harness, so I de-pinned the blue and orange wires. Dunno what they do, but they ain’t there in the TRX. In this aftermarket harness, there are also long wires teed into the blue, white with green stripe, and black wires. I got rid of the tees and soldered just the two ends back to each other as shown. Note that the one wire has a green stripe on the male plug and red stripe on the female, but they do go together and are in the same pin position.View attachment 3013
I then extended the red wire leads to go out to a kill switch using the excess wire from this kit.
View attachment 3014
Next up is the truck-side of the work. I pulled the knee buster down, and reached up to push the starter switch out of it’s hole. There are two tabs on top and one on the bottom.
View attachment 3015
From there it was a matter of installing my tee harness.
View attachment 3018
I taped over the connector to make it a little less apparent and harder to disassemble. Anyone who’s dealt with Tesa tape knows it’s a bitch to unpeel. Obviously the way to defeat it is to unplug the tee harness and plug the factory harness directly back into the switch. To avoid that possibility, you can hardwire without the tee harness. That would be more secure, but I just didn’t want cut wires. I never ever do, and won’t start now. You do what you want.
View attachment 3019
Last step is the kill switch. Any simple SPST on/off switch works. I used a high quality Carling marine switch because I just didn’t want problems. I soldered my wires right to switch and heat shrunk and taped over them.

You can put the switch anywhere you want. I found a pretty neat location. Very difficult to find while being comically easy to reach. The steering column has a leather thing around it and a hole where the tilt adjuster lever passes through. I pulled the headlight switch (just pull!), and mounted the kill switch to a brace that is facing the adjuster lever. I have the switch positioned so I can reach in the hole in the leather and flip it. The switch does not restrict the adjustment lever movement and is totally invisible. Switch is on the metal bracket with the slot running down it.View attachment 3020
View attachment 3022
This is the view from below:
View attachment 3021Yes, you can kinda see it, but it’s way up there and not obvious. You wouldn’t be likely to find it in a rush, and you wouldn’t be able to feel it or reach it from below. Good enough for me.

Now, I did highlight it’s weaknesses, this is not the perfect solution. I am aware. I just figure for $70 this is way better than nothing. It is easy to install with no factory wires to cut and could supplement other security measures such as my S&W 500 mag. Or maybe a dummy OBD2 port, wheel club, etc. I’m not super paranoid, just wanted to do a little something.

Videos of operation:

Freakin awesome write up @OnTheReel ! Anything to slow these morons down is always a good thing.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
577
Messages
9,750
Members
723
Latest member
twawzysko
Top