Common short on FJ-40's? (1 Viewer)

[Dirt_is_our_friend]

i was wondering are there common shorts on a FJ-40? mine has a jocobs ignition on it and a few wires were jimmy-rigged to the 3rd level! example: wire from battery to starter was actually 2. But each were short and had the 0 shaped peices on the end and a bolt through them to complete the connection so everytime i hit a bump it shorted so i replaced all the questionable wires etc and my FJ has no radio etc but after 4 days it shorts out. i cant figure it out and the battery was just tested 1 month ago and i am not leaving it on acc. anyone have any ideas? ???

 

[CruisinGA]

By short out do you mean drain the battery?
If so, get yourself a multimeter, and start pulling fuses and checking circuits for the drain.
Is that 4 days of sitting? Be specific.

 

[Dirt_is_our_friend]

yes after i run her.........i checked the fuses they all are good. I am kind of lost. 4 days of sitting out side in colder weather (right around freezing)

 

[TJDIV]

My friend had to put a kill switch on his battery ground because of this. After myself, and a very talented shop having it for almost a week, we couldn't find the drain and concluded that there had to be several if not more problems that were draining his brand new battery dead in roughly 7 days of non-cranking. The kill switch works great, and isn't that much of a hassle.

Alternative: Re-wire s***.

 

[TJDIV]

Notice I only "included" myself in the same sentence with the word 'talented'. I did not claim to actually possess talent.

*disclaimer*

 

[CruisinGA]

[quote author=Velocity link=board=1;threadid=12025;start=msg109864#msg109864 date=1077673382]
yes after i run her.........i checked the fuses they all are good. I am kind of lost. 4 days of sitting out side in colder weather (right around freezing)
[/quote]
Nono, bad fuses would probably help you here.
What I mean is to check battery drain with a multimeter (check volt. between pos. post and frame/engine etc), and then remove fuses one by one, hopefully after removing one, you will no longer have a voltage drop, at that point you can search that circuit for the short.
Also-do you have an alternator other than the factory externally regulated one? -some GM's can cause funky shiznit to happen if not set up right.
Check to be sure that your jacobs is wired correctly, and is drawing power from the keyed ign. wire and not the battery or a constant hot.

 

[Dirt_is_our_friend]

[quote author=CruisinGA link=board=1;threadid=12025;start=msg109948#msg109948 date=1077679016]
Nono, bad fuses would probably help you here.
What I mean is to check battery drain with a multimeter (check volt. between pos. post and frame/engine etc), and then remove fuses one by one, hopefully after removing one, you will no longer have a voltage drop, at that point you can search that circuit for the short.
Also-do you have an alternator other than the factory externally regulated one? -some GM's can cause funky shiznit to happen if not set up right.
Check to be sure that your jacobs is wired correctly, and is drawing power from the keyed ign. wire and not the battery or a constant hot.
[/quote]
the jacobs has a built in sercurity system that has got me thinking.........its a auto cut-off switch ??? but not 100%. The aleternator is a mean green. It "seems" to be fine but you never know.............. i hate electrics of vehicles no matter what

 

[LCruzombre]

I don't have much advice for your problem but I experienced a major short just after I got home from a short drive in my '78 FJ40 a few years ago. I turned off my key and immediately smoke began to pour out from under the dash. I went as fast as I could and took a cable off the battery but not soon enough to avoid a bad melt of about 30 percent of my harness. I had a specialist redo what was needed but he never actually found the source of the short. I suspect it had something to do with a fault in the ignition switch. After I got it fixed I put on a fusable link so if there is another short it won't melt my wires again. My advice is to make sure you have a fuseable link.