Remove your rotor arm!

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Discussion

4rephill

Original Poster:

5,040 posts

177 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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I've posted this in the stolen Jeep thread but felt that if it could help other classic/old car owners then I'd create it's own thread:

For anyone parking a classic/old car anywhere or displaying it somewhere, a tip My Grandad always gave Me was, when you park it, if it has a distributor cap and it is easy to remove, lift it off and take the rotor arm out!

You can easily carry it in your pocket and the chances of a thief carrying a rotor arm that fits the vehicle is highly unlikely.



If this advice only helps save one classic owner from losing their pride and joy then My dearly departed Grandad will be happy that I made good use of his advice!


MoggieMinor

457 posts

144 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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I always used to do that with my Minis and Moggies until one night I lost the fxxxing thing.

4rephill

Original Poster:

5,040 posts

177 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
quotequote all
MoggieMinor said:
I always used to do that with my Minis and Moggies until one night I lost the fxxxing thing.
I'd suggest it's better to lose your rotor arm than lose your whole car to a car thief!



I used to do this with both of My Fiat X1/9's and never lost the rotor arm once.

Had the owner of the 1943 Jeep in the other thread removed the rotor arm, chances are he would still have his Jeep today.

It's a free method of mobilising an old car that doesn't take that much effort and some owners new to the scene might not think of doing it.

jamesh764

184 posts

141 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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4rephill said:
I used to do this with both of My Fiat X1/9's and never lost the rotor arm once.
When we moved house I had to leave my X1/9 for a few days in our office car park, which was in one of the less desirable areas of High Wycombe, so I removed the rotor arm.

My wife questioned what I was doing, and when I told her she reminded me that the car never started anyway, and I was wasting my time. She had a point.

GTRene

16,367 posts

223 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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you also can make a hidden switch somewhere.

4rephill

Original Poster:

5,040 posts

177 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
quotequote all
jamesh764 said:
4rephill said:
I used to do this with both of My Fiat X1/9's and never lost the rotor arm once.
When we moved house I had to leave my X1/9 for a few days in our office car park, which was in one of the less desirable areas of High Wycombe, so I removed the rotor arm.

My wife questioned what I was doing, and when I told her she reminded me that the car never started anyway, and I was wasting my time. She had a point.
I've owned two X1/9's in My time and neither had any issues with starting, either when hot or cold!

Either I just got lucky with the two I owned or you were just unlucky with yours.

GTRene said:
you also can make a hidden switch somewhere.
Another good tip to help protect your pride and joy from thieves.

The whole point of Me starting this thread was to help other classic/old car owners from suffering the same sort of incident that the owner of the '43 Jeep has suffered.

As I have previously posted, some people might not realise how easy it is to immobilise an classic/old car, I just want to help prevent others from suffering the loss of their car, even if that only means one owner!

NiceCupOfTea

25,280 posts

250 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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Even better if your car is new enough to have fuel injection - pull the fuel pump fuse, or swap out with a blown one.

battered

4,088 posts

146 months

Sunday 19th July 2015
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I used to remove the middle HT lead and hide it. Alternatively you can pull an LT lead off the coil.

Not many thieves 20 years ago knew how to diagnose those kind of faults, and these days who on earth knows what a coil looks like? I have to go back 3 cars before I get to one that had anything resembling a distributor.

sim16v

2,176 posts

200 months

Sunday 19th July 2015
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I had my first mk1 Golf GTI back in the '90s when car crime was rife.

I used to take the fuel pump relay out and put a broken one in it's place.

I had to attend Teesside University and was terrified of leaving my car parked up.

It had a 16v engine conversion, so I used to remove the ECU as well as the relay!

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 19th July 2015
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If on crabs with an electric pump, put a switch on the pump, car starts and moves to an inconvenient place then stops. Many years ago I left my mg in a car park in London, came back to find it moved, it had stopped blocking the exit ramp, attendants pushed it out of the way awaiting my return, thief run away no damage.

mph

2,316 posts

281 months

Sunday 19th July 2015
quotequote all
My grandad used to do the same thing.

Could it be a wartime or military thing i.e. immobilising your vehicle to stop the enemy getting their hands on it ?


Vanin

1,010 posts

165 months

Sunday 19th July 2015
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Even better is to replace the rotor arm with a crap Lucas one which has broken down inside so the spark goes straight to the distributor shaft.

Slidingpillar

761 posts

135 months

Sunday 19th July 2015
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mph said:
My grandad used to do the same thing.

Could it be a wartime or military thing i.e. immobilising your vehicle to stop the enemy getting their hands on it ?
Motorists in WW2 were required to immobilise their cars (for the few that had petrol anyway). See https://www.flickr.com/photos/50415738@N04/5963464...

IroningMan

10,154 posts

245 months

Monday 20th July 2015
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mph said:
My grandad used to do the same thing.

Could it be a wartime or military thing i.e. immobilising your vehicle to stop the enemy getting their hands on it ?
Berw said:
If on crabs
An RAF thing, apparently.

Hooli

32,278 posts

199 months

Monday 20th July 2015
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GTRene said:
you also can make a hidden switch somewhere.
I did that on one car, a relay on the power lead to the coil & a hidden switch to cut that off. So even if hotwired you got all the dash lights but no spark.

Aphex

2,160 posts

199 months

Monday 20th July 2015
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I don't think most classics are chanced to be started and driven away any more by the thieving gits!

droopsnoot

11,809 posts

241 months

Monday 20th July 2015
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I've got a hidden switch but I worry about whether adding another component might make it less reliable in general running. But I can't easily remove my rotor arm as it's held in with small screws.

swisstoni

16,844 posts

278 months

Wednesday 22nd July 2015
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Takes me back to the days of Krookloks, and Yale locks on the doors of my Cortina.

Riley Blue

20,912 posts

225 months

Wednesday 22nd July 2015
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I use a Dis-Car-Nect or would if I could be bothered to fit it. I suppose not having a cylinder head on it at the moment is good enough for the time being.

onomatopoeia

3,469 posts

216 months

Thursday 23rd July 2015
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Vanin said:
Even better is to replace the rotor arm with a crap Lucas one which has broken down inside so the spark goes straight to the distributor shaft.
hehe

The correct answer to Lucas distributors these days seems to be to find the oldest, most worn out rotor arm you can, as that might last more than 100 miles, unlike a bright shiny new one.

Red ones excluded, not had any trouble with those yet.