Electrical Gremlin (1 Viewer)

[AndrewHadji]

Hey Folks,

Seem to have a bit of an electrical gremlin going on. Drove her into work today, my radio kept cutting out, then coming back on. This is a symptom it seems. On the way home at night, it did the same thing, except with the dash lights getting super bright. It happens more frequently on bumps but not always. I had the dimmer all the way up and it got brighter than the dimmer. It would do this for a second and then return to normal. Whatever it was eventually blew the 20 amp parking light fuse. I have headlights, dashlights and interior lights, brake lights and turn signals work but i do not have parking lights (ie the first twist of the let there be light stalk). Replaced the fuse but no go, no parking lights.

Any ideas? What would make the dash lights go super bright and blow the parking lights, even worse, what would make a new fuse not work? Im going to be pulling the fuse block to look behind it when its light out.

 

[clintnz]

First thing to look at when you have multiple funky stuff like that going on is the earth side of the circuit. Start at the battery. Good luck.

Cheers
Clint

 

[AndrewHadji]

yea, rear tail lights came back after i reset the pos and neg on both batteries, still dont have front parking lights, im going for a drive to see what the deal is. I took the fuse block out and looked at the connections and wiggled each, none look burned.

I remember when i first got it the PO had vampire tapped off the bundle in the rear wheel wheel drivers side. It went to the trailer harness. Next step is to take the rear inside panels off and take a look at that to see if any are touching.

i hate electrical stuff, any idea on why things went super bright? I didnt know the dash could light up that high, my dimmer goes about half that intensity all the way up

 

[AndrewHadji]

After pulling panels, wiggling wires,
skipped dinner to work on the truck. So this is what i found, chased all the negatives to make sure they were good. While the batteries were disconnected, the rear parking lights came on, also noticed my license plate lights were both out. went for a drive without the bulbs in the front parking light, no issues, put the broken ones back in and had issues. So narrowed it down to the blown bulbs causing issues. Might be the housings, but wont know until i replace the bulbs in the morning. I can only guess that the bulbs caused some sort of short when the filament made a momentary connection. No blown bulbs, no issues. Put them back in to make sure, a few min into the drive had the issue again. Weird, least i narrowed it down and dont have to worry about the truck burning down


Anyone know the trick to getting at the bulb in the plate light? I got the housing off but cant get the lens off to get to the bulb

 

[divemedic]

Mine had a screw holding the plate. Maybe pull the interior panel. I've noticed my dash lights will brighten on long night drives but only be a cause it seems the left side speedo bulbs turn on. Check power side too, the connections might be loose at the connectors.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

Normally when lights get unusually brights its indicative of a charging issue. (Regulator allowing overcharging)

 

[OGBeno]

^^^ What Charles said. I would test the alternator Andrew. The alternator is internally regulated. On the 1HZ (12V system), you can use 27060-66070-84 as a new alternator. You will need to splice in the 1FZ-FE connector on the harness side. Otherwise, it is a direct fit on the 1HZ/1HD-T engines. As an option.

 

[AndrewHadji]

Im driving it today again to see whays up. Thanks for the suggestions. Ill email you beno as there are a few things i think we need to close on

 

[AndrewHadji]

So drove it in today with all aux power cables disconnected and took the dual battery out of the equation and was running single, still happening. I am now leaning towards what charles and beno suggested, which is the alternator regulator. Ill text you today @beno We will see if that fixes the issue

 

[Gun Runner 5]

Any updates?

 

[AndrewHadji]

Working with georg and ward to get a few new terrain tamers in.