So some of you may have noticed that I revived two very old threads earlier today. Last night after taking a leak I hopped back in my truck only to find a blown fuse. i figured no big deal and instead of digging out my parts i pulled the one from my a/c and drove to my hotel.
i woke up today, wandered the markets of Huaraz and picked up my laundry. came back to the hotel hopped in my truck and blew another fuse. thought it was odd and went to get gas. it happened again after getting gas. so i came back to the hotel, poached wireless and did my search. after realizing i could be anywhere from 5 mins to many hours trying to figure out the problem i checked back into the hotel. parked the truck so i could work on it and set out to track down some fuses. there is a toyota dealer in the town and i bought ALL of their 10 amp fuses. 6 total. yep 6. with my stash in my car that gave me about 15 to trouble shoot.
back at the hotel i broke out my fsm (thanks trunk monkey) and stared at the wiring diagram only to realize i was WAY over my head. a call to a friend who works for toyota resulted in a conversation and email of a list of circuits/parts connected to the gauge fuse and i set about going through each one. I got lucky. a/c didn't trip it. auto climate control, nope. fan/recirc/temp nothing. those were the items i was using the when it happened. cdl, abs, high/low, 2nd start, pwr button. still good. i tried all while starting the vehicle because that is when i noticed the fuses blowing. or so i thought. next up i tried putting it in gear. bingo blown fuse. after a series of tests and different configurations i discerned that putting it into reverse was killing the fuse. so options were back up lights, including one on my bumper, the harness from the switch back and the tranny switch itself.
I started with the easy one. For once in my life I made a proper decision in regards to fabrication. when i made my swing out i used t-taps for my license plate and back up lights so if i needed to remove the carrier the wiring would be a simple disconnect. i pull the t-tap for the back up light, put in a new fuse and ran through reverse about 20 times. no blown fuse. i'm 99.9% sure i found and isolated the problem. near the light itself the wire had come out of the flex loom and had been rubbing on the bumper, enough to expose the wire and short the circuit.
I can't tell you how relieved I am to have found the issue so quickly. electrical bugs are NOT my strength and sometimes trouble shooting them requires two people to isolate them. IE trying locking your rear diff by yourself and checking the motor for a signal on the rear diff. yep tried that once in my taco. anyway, the prospect of a MAJOR electrical gremlin or trying to source the parts for my a/c clutch were not something i was looking forward to. here is a partial list of items affected by a blown gauge cluster fuse. biggest one in my mind is speed sensor. pretty much can't drive without a speed sensor. the tranny has no idea where it should be.
A/C pressure switch- under the hood on the a/c high pressure line ABS Actuator ABS Relay ABS ECU A/C ECU (amplifier) Air inlet motor Air vent mode control motor Brake fluid level switch Blower relay Seat belt buckle switch CDL motor CDL light CDL relay Combination meter Cruise control ECU Check engine light Seat belt light Radio cooling fan DLC Connector (OBD II port) Diff lock ECU Door lock control relay Engine ECU Transmission pattern select switch (power/2nd start) Front diff lock switch Fuel level sender Heater control switch A/C switch Oil level switch Oil pressure sender O/D switch Park/Neutral switch Parking brake switch Rear heater switch Rear window defogger switch Reverse lights Rear diff lock position switch Seat belt warning relay Transfer L4 position switch Transfer neutral position switch Trailer wiring converter harness Vehicle speed sensor Coolant temp sensor Defog relay Heater relay Power relay
so back in my hotel. off to Lima in the morning.
dmc
