Hood Lock with Starter Disable

Unfortunately, it is a common fact that Jeeps have become a big target for vehicle theft. I work in a shopping mall. Malls are considered some of the highest theft areas for vehicles. I have a soft top which could probably be cut open with a dull knife. Three strikes against me from the start. I also have done a few underhood mods that I wanted to keep safe.
A friend of mine had his TJ broken in to. He got an alarm, but also wanted a way to keep thieves out from under his hood. He found the Hood Lock with Starter Disable (part # 566T) made by Hornet Auto Security Systems. I once had an alarm in my previous YJ and all it did was make noise if someone opened something. It didn't really protect anything because most people ignore alarms. I wanted to make my stuff secure. This hood lock/starter kill combo does that. My friend ordered several of them and a group of us got together and installed them in our Jeeps.

Follow along as I install the hood lock with starter disable in my TJ.

************ WARNING ************

I spliced in to and used the factory Power Distribution Center (PDC) to mount my relay to get a factory look. This makes it a little harder for the thieves to find it. This may not be something for everyone. Model years do vary so don't use this writeup as a guide to do yours like mine unless you know what you are doing and have the tools to test the connections.

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Here are the parts of the hood lock/kill switch combo.		First, I had to find a suitable location. Under the dash next to the center console worked for my friend so I installed mine there too. The switch grounds through its housing so you have to mount it to a metal surface or run a ground wire. The TJ has metal behind this plastics dash piece.
Next, I drilled a hole in the factory rubber plug just behind the accelerator pedal. It was right in line with the area I will mount the switch.		The cable has been routed through the plug.
It exits here and is routed up to the grill support rods.		I have mounted the switch with the supplied screws. This shot shows the switch in the unlocked position. If the button is pushed in, it locks the hood and disables the starter.
The hood lock cable has been routed along the grill support rod and the starter kill wire has been routed to the right fender.		I wanted a more factory look so, instead of using the supplied wiring harness, I decided to use an empty relay spot (arrow) in the power distribution center (PDC) under the hood in the TJ.
The only problem was that the wires were in the wrong locations from where they needed to be for the supplied relay. No problem though. We just removed the yellow plastic part and popped the connectors out of the PDC. There are little tabs that are moved out of the way and the connectors slide out. Then just slide them back where they need to be.		To remove the yellow plastic part, look underneath the PDC and press in on the two yellow tabs (arrows) and pull up on the whole thing.
Here is what it looked like on my 97 TJ after the connector were swapped around. The red wire is a switched power line and is left uncut. The two black wires (lower arrows) will be cut and the starter wire will be cut. These will all be spliced together.		The blue wire from the relay connector on the PDC is cut and connected to the black wire coming from the hood lock/starter disable switch.
Here, I have spliced each of the black wires coming from the relay to each end of the cut pink starter wire.		All wiring is done and the relay is in place. Looks like it came that way from the factory.
Time to start mounting the hood lock. I started by finding a suitable location for the hood lock bracket.		The factory hood latch is retained to keep the hood safely closed if the side rubber hood latches fail and the hood lock is disengaged. The hood spring is in the way of the hood lock bracket though and will need to be relocated.
I have removed the spring and hood latch and marked the location that needs to be cut to clear the hood lock bracket. It isn't necessary to remove the hood latch. I did it when I was trying to find a good mounting location for the bracket.		I have done the preliminary cut to clear the bracket.
The bracket has been screwed down...		...and the lock hardware installed. This is the unlocked position. The locking cylinder is pulled in to the bracket and the hood can open.
This is the locked position. The locking cylinder is extended outside the bracket and hold the hood locked closed.		The hole turned out to be too small so I enlarged it. Here is the final hole. The piston in the hood lock slides above (when the hood is closed) the metal indicated by the arrow and that locks the hood.
This is where I relocated the spring to. Works the same as if it was in its original position.		I also fabbed this little plate to keep the spring away from the A/C condenser.

The hood lock is now in place. To activate it, I simply push the lock button in the Jeep and it locks the hood and disables the starter.

For those that are not as adventurous as me and cringe at the thought of cutting a hole in their Jeep, go here to Joe West's hood lock install page. He installed his by removing the factory hood latch and installing the hood lock in its place.

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