E Locker Wiring Help (1 Viewer)

[turboed83]

So I picked up a trashed 95 with lockers just to remove the lockers to rebuild for my 94. So I want to take the entire axles and wiring to complete the changeover. Now from what I've read I need the harnesses coming from the axles, the computer in the rf kickpanel, the switch and there is supposed to be a harness running through the drivers side. So what would really help would be a picture of the harness. Do I need to split open the wiring loom (i'm assuming) because I don't see anything else. Where does it plug into (rear axle harness ?) Also, do I just remove the computer and don't worry about any plugs ? (should I have the plug in the rf kick panel already ?). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[retrofive]

IIRC (I only did a front swap). I added the Locker ECU to the kick panel factory location. Added the magic dial. The harness from the magic dial to the ECU was there. The harness from the kick panel to the engine bay was there (around the cruise control unit), but used the supplied harness donor from the engine bay down to the actual locker.

The rear I believe you will have to run yourself. I think the easiest while looking into this was to use a trailer harness wiring kit VS donor harness. And then I think that it connects in the rear quarter panel and then down to the actual locker. (This part Im not sure because I never did it)

 

[LINUS]

If you want all factory parts, take the floor harness from the driver corner to the rear driver corner (or add the wires, either way you're in there) & also:

Rear intermediary harness - ties the RH & LH rear corners together.

FR & RR locker pigtail

You have all the parts, so I'd take those over learning the pinouts you need for the wires.

I swapped & bought the right harnesses - made the wires a 20 minute job.

 

[turboed83]

If you want all factory parts, take the floor harness from the driver corner to the rear driver corner (or add the wires, either way you're in there) & also:

Rear intermediary harness - ties the RH & LH rear corners together.

FR & RR locker pigtail

You have all the parts, so I'd take those over learning the pinouts you need for the wires.

I swapped & bought the right harnesses - made the wires a 20 minute job.

So you are saying I can just remove the entire floor harness that runs down the driver side and swap them ?

 

[LINUS]

Yup.

Have you tried searching?
Or plug it into google w/ a Ih8mud in the search?

It'll bring up all about the floor harnesses, the different gens, etc.

Not playing search Nazi, it's all somewhere here in the forum - not much is new info when we're talking old parts. Maybe deep in the history, IDK.

I posted my swap along time ago, and I was far from groundbreaking. Lots of guys go your route & swap the whole shebang.

 

[turboed83]

Yeah I was searching and couldn't find what I was looking for, i'm usually pretty good about it. I pulled the computer and switch today as well as the seats. In the next day or so I plan on putting it on blocks and snatching the axles out. Then I guess just follow the wires.

 

[turboed83]

Ok so I pulled both axles and the wiring harness attached to them. Front was easy. Rear I unplugged underneath at the lr quarter. Do I snip the plugs there or is there another plug inside ? What about the plug at the LF kick panel ? I am just having trouble identifying these two areas. I don't want to pull the entire harness. I'd rather snip the two plugs needed and just do the trailer harness. Does anyone have a pic of the two plugs ? In the truck would be ideal. Thanks

 

[turboed83]

Well I said screw it and pulled the entire harness from the donor truck. Now the question is does anyone know if the harness is plug in play because my truck is a 94 and the donor is a 95 ? I've combed through the forums and surprisingly cannot find much info on this. Thanks

 

[retrofive]

Well if you have the complete harness then I would imagine yes. It doesn't tie into any other systems.

 

[turboed83]

I'm talking about the interior harness running from lf kickpanel all the way to lr quarter and connects both rear tail lamps. Are the plugs the same ?

 

[LINUS]

Just lay it in & plug all the connectors & see.

It's not like you won't need access anyhow, and if it is a generation change like early '94 is still the OBD1 & '95 is OBD2 (ssems like that was the denominator of locker & floor harness gernerations, not positive), then nothing ventured, nothing learned.

Don't snip any wires anywhere until it's a planned cut for exact modification.
Nothing is worse than snipped harnesses - if yours doesn't plug & play you can sell it.

I forget the name of the guy who did some pigtail harnesses with the trailer wires to add in to your harness, but try yours & see - you'll never know 'till you try if you are a 'free locker upgrade'.

And once you do, you can come back & report so maybe someone else can learn from your setup.

I posted a ton of pics of mine when I converted the rear axle shell to locker type, both the flange face & the stud changeout for locker 3rds - I didn't have step by step instructions either but no risk = no reward.

The driver seat & console are all that I pulled up, to do the center tunnel connectors IIRC. The floor harness sounds like a bigger job than it is, big time.

And an unlocked floor harness has value, so sell/hold yours for down the line.

 

[turboed83]

I pulled the harness out of donor in about 20 minutes so yea it is not that big of a deal. However, I was hoping someone had some information on the plugs before I start taking my DD truck apart. Sorry for asking but your response was basically unhelpful. I am perfectly capable of laying the harness side by side to see if they match. I was simply assuming since this has been done before that someone could chime in with more technical info. An no I would not just start snipping wires man. I'm not that kind of tech man. I am just utterly surprised with the amount of knowledge and good people on this forum that nobody knows this answer. I will figure it out. Thanks

 

[LINUS]

What I'm saying is pull your front 1/4 under the dash & compare your in-car plug to the harness you have laid out - then do the same in the rear quarter, and leave your intermediary rear harness installed just pull the plugs in each rear corner & mock yours over it.

Then if it looks good or you are able to test out any connections you don't quite understand with a multimeter, then start getting ready to swap.

Nobody has really defined the early / late gen wire harness & it seems from posts I recall searching it was close to being a OBD1 / OBD2 as the main marker of the gen break - there's only 2 versions, period.

AFAIK the plugs fit even if the wire continuity isn't there - this isn't a case of round plug, square plug.

Download the EWD for the '94 & '95 models & compare the locker circuit - if they're carbon copies you can confidently proceed.
I'm betting the reason you don't see that info here is people simply did that to decide if they wanted to swap floor harnesses or add the 4 wires. That or they didn't obtain a floor harness for whatever reason so they just read the pinout.

You'll be the guy who can explain it to the new owners once you've done this, and can teach the 9v trick for the lockers motors & all that - you can be the new torchbearer, most of us who have done this are a few years into Mud, so it's old projects for us.
The wave of locker swaps was a good 5-8 yrs ago, and I'd have to see the daystamps on my posts to recall. I'll guess 2010 for my black 80 e-lockers, and I think I was the last to document the rear axle swap, having bent my front hoising I didn't swap that (more intensive work than rear). My old posts when I remembered more were pretty good. I'll search my old posts if I ever have hiccups.

Be happy you're not swapping axle housings, they use a bunch of different length studs between locker & open diffs, that was a godsend era to have @cruiserdan who could recite the studs we needed if you were swapping 3rds.

 

[dirtaddicted]

I'm I'm planning to do the same thing from a 96 into my 94. How did it work out? Thanks

 

[turboed83]

I am in the process of stripping down, painting and rebuilding the axles. I should have them all done and installed in about a week. I will post up results. I haven't even bothered looking at the wiring in my truck yet. I pulled the whole floor harness out of the donor truck.

 

[turboed83]

Well I am happy to report that the harness was a direct plug and play. I did check the pinout on each connector and they were the same except for the added locker portion. It was about a 2 hour job and everything snapped right together and works great. I would definitely do this again instead of building a harness. To clarify I put a 95 floor harness and rear locker harness into my 94 to retrofit the elockers. Front was cake. So I am officially 3x locked now. Last thing left to do is get some bulbs and put them in the indicator lamps on the cluster.

 

[Sarge24]

I am getting ready to do an axle swap from a trashed 3x locked 95 to my 97 with only cdl. I have chased all of the wiring on the front axle and am wondering where exactly to start with the rear. Where does the harness that runs front to back start and end. If I read correctly it ties into the tail light harness. Is this correct? Do i need to pull the drivers seat and console?

 

[turboed83]

Pull driver seat and console. Remove floor harness at lf kick panel (3 plugs) all the eay back to lr quarter panel inside. Then the harness goes through lr quarter to tail lights that has thr plug for the reae harness. Sounds like alot vut really not bad. Its all plug and play

 

[Sarge24]

Pull driver seat and console. Remove floor harness at lf kick panel (3 plugs) all the eay back to lr quarter panel inside. Then the harness goes through lr quarter to tail lights that has thr plug for the reae harness. Sounds like alot vut really not bad. Its all plug and play

Sounds like its not too bad. Thanks for the help!

 

[thetoyotaman]

I am in the process of stripping down, painting and rebuilding the axles. I should have them all done and installed in about a week. I will post up results. I haven't even bothered looking at the wiring in my truck yet. I pulled the whole floor harness out of the donor truck.

Interested in what you are doing to strip and paint the axles. Thanks!