Mystery wire near transfer (1 Viewer)

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I have three wires (all original '76) going to the transfer. Two are obviously for the back up lights, but I can't figure out where the third red wire goes to. Any ideas?
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There is also a green wire further toward the front of the vehicle. Not sure what this is either. Could either of these be for the rear heater?
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Those wires don't look stock. Maybe for a Tachometer?
 
4WD indicator light? I never got mine to work on my 69,but there is a purple light in the center of the dash.My be diff. for you year.
 
On my 70 theres a speed sensor to prevent shifting into 4wd at faster speeds. The sensor is mounted on my trans and the original speedo cable went through it. I bypassed it cause I don't need to shift on the fly.
 
does your back up light work? I know that the back up switch is on the base of the main gearbox shifter. I had to re-connect and run new wire to get mine to work
 
On my 70 theres a speed sensor to prevent shifting into 4wd at faster speeds. The sensor is mounted on my trans and the original speedo cable went through it. I bypassed it cause I don't need to shift on the fly.


Picture please? I know their are speed sensors in the speedo cable. Some on the speedo itself. Plus some four speeds have a sensor that only closes in fourth gear. I thought those only were for emission use. Never heard a a sensor that prevent shifting into 4WD on FJ40 I know later cruisers with a automatic have to be in neutral or park to shift from hi to low but nothing like that in the earlier cruisers.
 
Living in the Past said:
Picture please? I know their are speed sensors in the speedo cable. Some on the speedo itself. Plus some four speeds have a sensor that only closes in fourth gear. I thought those only were for emission use. Never heard a a sensor that prevent shifting into 4WD on FJ40 I know later cruisers with a automatic have to be in neutral or park to shift from hi to low but nothing like that in the earlier cruisers.

Sorry for the delay, so if you can imagine the speedo cable coming from the cluster to one end of the unit. Then a shorter cable attaches to the tranny.
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some four speeds have a sensor that only closes in fourth gear. I thought those only were for emission use.

I have a high-gear sensor in the top-cover of the 4-speed in my CA '78, but not in my 49-state '76. I heard they were only in the CA '78, but I don't know if that's true or not.
 
Solid green wires are for parking, license plate, marker, tail lights, & front drive indicator (fwd indicator was an option in 76. My 76 doesn't have it but the wire is there). Green with black line is left turn signal, green with yellow line is right turn signal, & between horn relay & horn switch. Green with red line is power from fuse panel to horn relay, stop light switch, light control switch (tail lights), & turn/hazard switch. Green with white line is from stop light switch to stop light, & from horn switch to horns. Green with light blue is from hazard light switch to turn signal switch. I think that's all for green wires.
The only red wires that should be near your the transfer case are red with light blue line for back up lights. Red with white line from parking brake switch to brake warning light.
 
Solid green wires are for ... front drive indicator (fwd indicator was an option in 76. My 76 doesn't have it but the wire is there).

Is that what the 3rd light is for with the brake warning and seat belt light? I'm going to co-opt that light for a locker indicator.
 
I have a 9/77 FJ40 and have a simular wire, different connector (green). My 40 is stock and I found the wire tied (factory) in the wiring harness that transitions (passenger side of the transfer case) to the rear of the vehicle. I have not tested it for power or function. Anyone have any thoughts on my unused wire?:meh:
 
I have a high-gear sensor in the top-cover of the 4-speed in my CA '78, but not in my 49-state '76. I heard they were only in the CA '78, but I don't know if that's true or not.

Federal '78 models had the high-gear sensor too.
 
Those wires don't look stock. Maybe for a Tachometer?

Definitely looks stock. There was a tach, but that was wired to the distributor.

Solid green wires are for parking, license plate, marker, tail lights, & front drive indicator (fwd indicator was an option in 76. My 76 doesn't have it but the wire is there). Green with black line is left turn signal, green with yellow line is right turn signal, & between horn relay & horn switch. Green with red line is power from fuse panel to horn relay, stop light switch, light control switch (tail lights), & turn/hazard switch. Green with white line is from stop light switch to stop light, & from horn switch to horns. Green with light blue is from hazard light switch to turn signal switch. I think that's all for green wires.
The only red wires that should be near your the transfer case are red with light blue line for back up lights. Red with white line from parking brake switch to brake warning light.

Good info. It might be FWD indicator, but the mystery wire is going TO the transfer, and there is nothing on the transfer to hook up to other than the 2 back up light wires. I'm assuming the optional FWD indicator would have a switch attached to the transfer?

I have a 9/77 FJ40 and have a simular wire, different connector (green). My 40 is stock and I found the wire tied (factory) in the wiring harness that transitions (passenger side of the transfer case) to the rear of the vehicle. I have not tested it for power or function. Anyone have any thoughts on my unused wire?:meh:

Good to hear that somebody else has the same/similar unused wire!
 
I've got my 40 in storage for the winter, so I just went down there and crawled under. I have the same two unused wires, the red & green, in the same place as in your pics. That's strange, the wire colors I listed are straight out of a '75-'76 toyota service manual. There is a picture in the manual of a transfer case from a '75, which utillizes a vacuum shifter for engaging the front drive and there are two more wires coming from the actual vacuum pod on the transfer case itself. Which it calls a magnet type front drive. Unfortunatly the pic is black & white. Now that I think of it, when I had my 40 torn apart doing a rebuild a year ago, I found a few unused wires behind the dash board too. Maybe they didn't bother getting rid of the wires when they went back to the mechanical shifter in '76. Anyone have a '75 with the vacuum shifter.
 
I looked, and I have the mystery red wire too. I like the idea that they just didn't change the harness. Maybe some markets still had the vacuum-type front drive shifter with that indicator.

And there's the mystery unused indicator with the brake and belt indicators.
 
This post looks oddly familiar. Do a search for mystery wires near the x-fer and I'm sure you'll get even more results
 
i've got an extra wire or do down there as well on my '78 unmodified wiring harness... everything works as advertised so i didn't worry about it
 

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