Do You think Engraving the VIN Number on a Catalytic Converter Will Prevent Thefts?

[LoudThunder]

@George_San_Jose1

Just curious, on that car do you have any difficulties with diagnosing carb problems?

Do you remember the topic, “Great Idea. Wish I thought of it,” it’s about the young lady who rebuilt carburetors (You should, both of our “fingerprints” are all over it, we both wrote several commented in there…)?

Where I wrote about the hassle I had with the carb on the '85 even when it was only 10-years old and even with the Toyota Dealer who freely admitted they no longer had any Carburetor experts on staff and could not even recommend a dependable one in town…

I ultimately rebuilt it myself from a kit that I bought from NAPA and it really was a nightmare. The instructions covered at least 4 versions of the carburetor (none of the illustrations matched exactly.

It was as if I had the 5th version that the kit did not cover…) and the only number that matched was the Engine Model “4A-LC.”

There were several versions of almost every gasket in the kit and I had more “unused gaskets” left over than I used as they were not for my specific carburetor… It was almost as if the carburetor was “Body Color” dependent… Red got one carburetor, Blue got another…

Here is my posting and the funny thing is that it is a response to you… L L…

Great Idea. Wish I thought of it

I would advise your friend to visit various Dealership Service Departments and speak directly to the Service Managers and find out if they would consider this; as well as local national service centers (Big Als, Pep Boys, Walmart, etc…) and local privately owned service stations… He is an “Un-Proven” service provider and if one of the aforementioned did offer a carburetor rebuilding service where they remove the carb and provide it to your friend to be rebuilt, the customer’s car would be out …

[jtsanders]

I’m sure the Sawzall can remove the engraved ID quickly as well since the thieves and eventual buyers don’t care about the can.

[George_San_Jose1]

Other posters here owning 1980’s era electronic controlled carbureted cars – not just Toyotas – have told us diagnosing carb problems is a nightmare, in part b/c there are so manyu different versions of the same carb, b/c of the various state emissions rules presumably. Sorry you had that difficulty, hopefully your Corolla is now purring like a kitten again. In general diyer repair instructions sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Both of my Ford truck’s aftermarket repair manuals say to drain the rear differential fluid, just remove the drain plug. But there is no drain plug on that truck’s Ford 9 inch differential, and I’m doubtful that any Ford 9 inch differential of that era has a drain plug … lol … It would be one thing if my truck had an unusual differential, but it is just a standard Ford 9 incher.

[bing]

I was told that as Japanese manufacturers struggled with emissions, their carbs were Rube Goldberg like and a nightmare to work one. Another advantage of diesels, fuel injection, and computers of that era.

Never changed fluid in a ford rear end but Gm just said to loosen the bolts and pry the lower pan open to drain the fluid. Then remove the bolts and pull the cover off. Just like transmissions with no drain plug. Can’t imagine any drain plug to be low enough to get enough fluid out to avoid a mess though.

[George_San_Jose1]

On my Ford 9 incher I’ve always just loosened the bolts that hold the third member to the axle, third member is removable front part of Ford 9 inch differential, then the fluid (may take a little persuasion) will usually begin to drain. I wonder how many man-hours diyers have spent looking for the non-existent drain plug?

[Nevada_545]

@George_San_Jose1

I wonder how many man-hours diyers have spent looking for the non-existent drain plug?

None. Buy a suction gun.

[Nevada_545]

@bing

So if get my cat cut off, then next day have it all repaired for a couple thousand so I can use te car, should I be greatly enthused that months later, the police return a rusty cat with parts of the exhaust system still intact? What would I do with it? Save it for next time? Does anyone see the logic in this? Class? Class? Anyone?

You don’t need the converter returned, you have car insurance to pay for the repair. And with that attitude there is no reason to arrest the thieves.

The purpose of the identification number is to prove the part does not belong to the thief and to trace where it came from. Many victims have surveillance video of the theft occurring, sometimes more than once but the police can’t question everyone wearing a black shirt and hat. With the ID number the police can gather the evidence needed to charge the criminal with theft.

[bing]

Well you didn’t read Bozos comment which I was referring to or Vdcs response. Something like”I don’t think it is to deter crime but make it more likely you will get the cat back someday”.

Like I said, that’s just a great idea. Design a program to get me the rusty cat back sometime but don’t try to stop the theft in the first place. Like I said it’s all ineffective feel good stuff like we have seen before.

[LoudThunder]

@George_San_Jose1

Both of my Ford truck’s aftermarket repair manuals say to drain the rear differential fluid, just remove the drain plug

I can’t speak to the "No-Drain-Plug issue, but in 1983, I had a 1973 Pinto Station Wagon, V6, 2300cc, 4-speed, and it was a really nice car, ran well, was comfortable and in spite of its age, it was in really nice shape. I had just noticed that the rear end, at the input shaft, was leaking a bit and the house we rented at the time had a garage with a dirt/gravel floor, so I had no idea how long it had been leaking.

I tried to loosen the fill plug so I could top it off, but it was not coming loose, even with a “goodly” amount of force, I was not going to go to extremes and risk stripping that plug apart as it was not solid steel, but rather a pressed design welded into the treaded ring that screwed into housing fill hole.

I finally took it to a couple of dealerships, first a Ford dealership and then finally to a Mercury Dealership…

And that is where the story takes an awful twist… The mechanic they put on it decided to try a “little heat” and broke out the acetylene gas torch and he stated heating the case around the filler plug and put a breaker bar into the plug…

What he did not do was drain the housing nor consider what the heat would do to the oil in the housing, but he found out, the fumes from the superheated oil exploded and ruptured the back of the housing. When I went in to see the car the next day, the mechanic was still in the hospital with flash burns to his face, hands, and arms (He did make a full recovery…).

The dealership said they would make full repair at no charge, and I guess just to be funny, they also offered to make a good deal on a new car if I wanted…

I think I surprised them when I said, “Oh yeah, what type of good deal?”

When all was said and done, I bought a new 1983 Mercury Lynx LS with the High Performance Sport Package. Now, that was a fun car to Zip around in…

As for the Pinto Wagon, they gave me High Blue Book Value as a trade-in, and I got the Lynx for its Base Price, all the factory addons were free as well as the dealer added extras: window engraving, undercoating, floor mats, inside and outside protections package (extra wax and scotchguard), and more…

I really liked that little lynx, but that sport package included metric high-performance Michelin Tires on it that barely got 20,000 miles out of a set out of the tires (really good road handling…) and back then only Michelin Tires fit those alloy rims… I kept that car for about 10-years or so…

[LoudThunder]

@bing

Never changed fluid in a ford rear end but Gm just said to loosen the bolts and pry the lower pan open to drain the fluid.

My Dodge Ram tried to drain the Rear Axle Oil on its own…

In 2005, the rear end of my 2001 Dodge Ram starting leaking and I called the dealer and was very happy to find out that the extended warranty I paid for would cover this repair…

The Limited Slip Positraction (or Dodge calls it “Anti-Slip Differential”) required two different types of lubricate (one for lubrication and the other type to modify the “slip…”) for a total of almost $90 then (almost $150 in today’s dollars…).

In other news, I did get my money’s worth out of that Extended Warranty I paid for as on three separate times, the dealer had to replace the input shaft from the vacuum temperature controller to the flapper valve and a few other piddly things that went wrong…

[It_s-Me]

@LoudThunder

but in 1983, I had a 1973 Pinto Station Wagon, V6, 2300cc

No you didn’t.

Pinto’s didn’t have a V6 in 73

[bing]

I had positraction on my olds so had to add the whale oil and drain and fill from time to time. Otherwise the chatter on sharp turns would sound like the real end was coming apart. 20,000 miles and rear end chatter. Whale oil in stock. They knew exactly what to do. But that car would go through any snow bank and never get stuck.

[cwatkin]

Obviously converter theft is a big problem everywhere. It certainly is in Missouri and they are looking at passing a law to deter it. Basically you have to have documentation that the converter was legally removed or you own the car it was from. There also might be a limit of how many you can sell per day or week unless you have papers proving you own a scrapping or repair facility.

The scrap yard I use no longer pays for converters because of all the theft around here. No laws have been passed yet but they don’t want to be part of this, end up paying for stolen property and having to return it, so just blanket no longer buys them. A guy in front of me last time was junking an old truck that had been cut up and was on a trailer in pieces. He asked about the converter and they told him they no longer bought them. The guy was like “I just don’t want this crap sitting around my place.” The scrap yard said he could give it to them but that they will no longer pay for them because of all the theft. The guy gladly just handed them the converter and got nothing for it. Obviously he wasn’t stealing them for drug money. He just wanted this junk off his property.

I enjoy kayaking, hiking, and other outdoor activities so am on several Facebook pages about hiking, boating, rivers, etc. Unfortunately it isn’t uncommon for cars parked at trailheads, river accesses, parks, and such to have their converters cut off when the owner returns. This topic comes up from time to time.

Of course after a big discussion about this and the potential laws being passed on a kayaking page, I start getting targeted ads from Facebook. The ads were basically for companies circumventing laws in states where sellers and/or scrap yards are regulated in regards to selling/buying catalytic converters. I went and looked at the page. You basically give them your information and the make/model of the car. They send you a box with a pre-paid label on it to ship it to them, then you ship it across state lines and you get a check in the mail. There will always be people like this creating a workaround of the laws. Of course Facebook has no issues hosting these ads. I came to realize long ago that any “community standards” or concerns about user safety go out the window if Facebook/Meta can make a single penny off harmful content like this.

So no, I don’t think engraving will do a thing to stop this except in maybe a handful of cases.

[George_San_Jose1]

@Nevada_545

[use] a suction gun [to drain Ford 9 inch differential]

I was thinking of trying that, but from my initial inspection, poking my finger into the fill hole, it appears there’s very little room available for a tube to go into the fill hole and ever get it to the bottom of the pumpkin. Maybe something about my particular Ford 9 inch rear differential, limited slip, 4.11.

[LoudThunder]

@It_s-Me

Pinto’s didn’t have a V6 in 73

“I know that you believe you understand what you think i said, but i am not sure that you realize that what you heard is not what i meant.”

You are right, I “Fat-Fingered” the year, it was not “1973” it was “1974,” and I stand by that…

When I first saw your reply, I was confused, not realizing I was trying to justify the “Fat Fingered date…” and I Googled “Ford Powertrain” and one of the references said it did not come up until 1975…

Since I bought the car in 1978, just a months before the Air Force reassigned me to Italy, I knew that was wrong as I was a Staff Sergeant (E-5) in the Air Force and I could not afford a 1975 car back then…

As a side note, my sponsor in Italy said that having a Ford in Italy was not a problem as there was a dealer just a couple of blocks off Post… My sponsor did not realize that these were British Fords and they had never seen or heard of the Pinto or its 2.3 liter engine…

So I check another reference and it does say that the 2300 came out in 1974 along with the 5-MPH bumper and I knew that was right because I wanted a bumper hitch installed and U-Haul would not install one with that “New Fangled” bumper. They said it would not support weight of a trailer hanging off it… I had one installed at another hitch dealer…

I also remember buying spark plugs once and the parts store counter person said the store only sold them by the box of 4. I told the counter person that I only needed 6 and he replied, “Don’t worry, these plugs are Autolite, you’ll need the spares…” I thought that was so funny, I bought both boxes…

I did not need any spares and I only had to buy one box of 4 the next time…

And that is my story and I’m sticking to it…

[davesmopar]

The 2300 or 2.3L is an inline 4 (I4) not a V6 also… It was also a SOHC or short for back then a OHC engine…

[LoudThunder]

@George_San_Jose1

I was thinking of trying that, but from my initial inspection, poking my finger into the fill hole, it appears there’s very little room available for a tube to go into the fill hole and ever get it to the bottom of the pumpkin.

Back in the early '70s, I lived in an apartment complex and they were not too disagreeable about working on your car as long as the car did not spend the night up on jack stands. One of the tenants did tune ups and oil changes in the parking lot. He used the metal style oil drain pan for the oil filter, but used one of these “suction pumps” to drain the oil. He attached a brass tube to the hose and pushed the tube down the dipstick tube and sucked the oil out and squired it into old jugs that he took to the Air Force Base’s auto hobby shop and dumped into their old oil tank. I was in the Air Force and eligible to use the auto hobby shop and did my oil change there myself.

I asked him what happened when the bottom of the drain pan was not under the dipstick tube or the drain pan had a splashguard that prevented the tube from reaching the bottom of the pan and he just shrugged and said “close enough…”

Any case, tagging onto this guy’s concept, perhaps a short brass tube, maybe even bent a bit to reach straight down to reach the bottom might be an option…

[LoudThunder]

@davesmopar

The 2300 or 2.3L is an inline 4 (I4) not a V6

I stand by my statement, it was a V6. I bought it in 1978, used, it did have an add-on A/C unit and I have no reason to believe the engine was not original. But it was a V6!

Next, you are going to tell me there is no Santa Clause…

[davesmopar]

I’m not saying you didn’t have a V6 just correcting you that the V6 should have been a 2.8L, and the 2.3 was a SOHC 2.3L inline 4 cylinder and was a very common engine for fords, you could build them up pretty good with a turbo for there time…
I remember the old joke you could pull up beside a Chevelle with your hood off and get laughed at then race for pinks and win with that little boosted 2.3L…

BTW the horse in the Santa hat is funny… lol

[cwatkin]

The oil suck out devices are probably better than nothing. Many mowers don’t have drain plugs and some have them but they are covered up by some part of the mower like the deck. This is more common on consumer grade mowers of course.

I was looking at a lower cost model at Lowes once and it didn’t have any provisions to change the oil so I opted not to get that one. Someone told me to use an oil suck out device like this but like ones I can drain. You always get the nastiest looking oil right at the end of the drain. I am sure just having a filter and changing 80% or more of the oil would probably be fine but if they cheap out on that, what else do they cheap out on?

I could see these being useful for differentials and transmissions without a drain plug if you don’t want to pull the pans/covers. Of course a complete drain is probably a better option here too.