40 series instrument cluster

[Henry James the 47th]

I noticed that on the back of the gauge cluster (1982 vintage) there is a row of small threaded studs with nuts on them along the bottom. One pair of them has '+' and '-' markings. Anyone know what these are meant to be used for? I'm imagining they are either for hooking a particular accessory up (but why not wire to a terminal block in the harness like the rest?), or for diagnostic work.

 

[Nomis]

Factory Ammeter or Voltmeter guage connections?

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Factory Ammeter or Voltmeter guage connections?

But there is an ammeter built in to the cluster.

 

[Poser]

Post up a pic.

 

[Landpimp]

my guess is they are leftovers from the old guages. If I recall the 81+ uses a clip on harness, the older clusters used teminal rings.

again, just a guess.......and its been awhile sense I looked at them

 

[JohnnyC]

don't the guages bolt all the way thru on all instru clusters if i remember correctly? if you unscrew them do your guages flop around?

 

[Pin_Head]

Connections for the external shunt type amp meter. + is closest to the battery.

 

[Poser]

09/72 and later 40 series used the round, multi-pin connector that attached to the printed circuit board on the rear of the instrument cluster and ring terminals for the ammeter connection.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

09/72 and later 40 series used the round, multi-pin connector that attached to the printed circuit board on the rear of the instrument cluster and ring terminals for the ammeter connection.

Okay, this is nothing to do with the multi-pin connector. As far as I can tell there is nothing on my harness that connects to these terminals. I will take a photo tomorrow and post it.

I haven't tried loosening the nuts, but it is certainly possible that the threaded studs that stick out are from the guages themselves. With the '+' and '-' marks though, it sure looks like they could be used as terminals for other things. I was wondering if I could take power off there and hook it up to accessories, for instance. I've gone through the whole harness checking for continuity and repairing connections and everything is pretty much accounted for.

 

[fullm00ner]

dont screw with something that is stock!

the + and - are for the older cruisers that had ring terminals for the ameter.
the newer cruisers like ours have the two plugs one is around 1" and black the other has two blacks and white/blue and white I think .... anyhow....
if you want to run Extra stuff off your cruiser.... Dont f!@# with the original harness leave it intact and run either relays from the battery or anything else....
I would be happy to take a drive up to see you and your cruiser and spend a day or so and help out with wiring stuff. All your connections should be soldered and liquid tight heat shrinked to avoid "green wire fire gremlins" etc.
as soon as you start overloading your stock wiring with anything else you run the risk of raising the temperature of the wiring even 4-8 degrees wich leads to condensation whithin the wiring and eventually leads to premature increased resistance oxidization and eventually fire or failing!
Everybody has stripped open a wire and found it black and dull or even green and this can all be avoided before it happens....
Anyhow just an elecrician rambleing... However if you look at your cruiser through a thermal imaging camera and realise that the backup lights you added at 50W has increased your wires temp ...... etc you get the idea...
Anyhow
Chris in East Sooke. 250-858-3532
give me a shout and I would be happy to come up and lend a hand for an afternoon....
I have a 40 I am slowly loving back into ship shape.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

the + and - are for the older cruisers that had ring terminals for the ameter.
the newer cruisers like ours have the two plugs one is around 1" and black the other has two blacks and white/blue and white I think .... anyhow....
if you want to run Extra stuff off your cruiser.... Dont f!@# with the original harness leave it intact and run either relays from the battery or anything else....
I would be happy to take a drive up to see you and your cruiser and spend a day or so and help out with wiring stuff. All your connections should be soldered and liquid tight heat shrinked to avoid "green wire fire gremlins" etc.
as soon as you start overloading your stock wiring with anything else you run the risk of raising the temperature of the wiring even 4-8 degrees wich leads to condensation whithin the wiring and eventually leads to premature increased resistance oxidization and eventually fire or failing!
Everybody has stripped open a wire and found it black and dull or even green and this can all be avoided before it happens....
Anyhow just an elecrician rambleing... However if you look at your cruiser through a thermal imaging camera and realise that the backup lights you added at 50W has increased your wires temp ...... etc you get the idea...
Anyhow
Chris in East Sooke. 250-858-3532
give me a shout and I would be happy to come up and lend a hand for an afternoon....
I have a 40 I am slowly loving back into ship shape.

Thanks Chris. I am well aware of the issue with overloading the stock harness. My harness had been so f*cked around with that the term 'stock' would only be approximate - there is little about it that one could term 'intact'. There were cigarette alumi-foil wrapper bits stuck in to bridge across the fuses in the panel, for instance, and lotsa stuff not connected, broken, or crudely hacked into. Having the factory manual has been very helpful and I have gone through most of the harness and straightened it out. And don't worry, i have soldering all connections/repairs and covering them with heat shrink tubing. I plan to install relays for the high and low beams, and am thinking i'll do the same if I put in aux. fog lights.

I am moving away from the stock wiring for the glow sytem, as the manual push-button system seems to be the best idea. Besides, my truck has an extremely primitive glow system (no timer, for instance), so the push button is a relatively minor mod.

Sounds like the '+' and '-' terminals may be a vestige of the earlier wiring system used? My ammeter wiring has the regular plug-in terminal type connector, not ring terminals.

you are more than welcome to come up and check it out though and offer your input - I can talk 'cruisers for hours, as I'm sure many readers here can relate.

 

[JohnnyC]

i am pretty shure its nothing more than just the guages that had not been redesinged like the back circuit board and conectors...not for any other reason other than thats the way it had been designed the most cost effective way....as toyota knows best. you can ofcouse do testing from these point very easily.

 

[Trollhole]

old style guage


https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=37506&highlight=guage

 

[Nomis]

Sounds like the '+' and '-' terminals may be a vestige of the earlier wiring system used?

Bingo.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Bingo.

Alright, that makes sense to me too. Thanks everyone!