Electrical Gurus, Need Your Help

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Nov 20, 2013
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Location
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I had some electrical gremlins start up this past winter. First issue was the rear wiper running of its own accord. This happened in a snow storm, and has continued any time there is precipitation.

Friday night on the way home from work, heavy rain, I had the taillight, brake light, and turn signal light fuses blow at the same time. All three were replaced and did not blow. Yesterday the turn signal fuse blew again, but it was undersized (5a rather than 7.5a).

While off-roading a year or so ago, I had a log pop up and jam itself over the rear axle into the rear ledge of the body. That took out a ABS sensor wire, and the backup camera wiring the PO had added. This morning I started my investigation at that spot, but I do not see any other wire damage.

So I pulled both rear interior covers. On the driver side I found a loose bare wire, which I tracked down to a ground added by the PO. He had an affinity for scotch lock splices :bang:. That wire has been removed.

The passenger side was full of mud. I've got a rust hole that was letting in more junk than I realized. Anyway, trailer wiring had been added by the PO, again using scotch lock splices. I plan on properly splicing and heating shrinking the connections ASAP. Clean all the mud out with a hose and pulled the wiring harness out of the quarter panel.

Question one is this connector. Un-used, but corroded to hell. Can someone tell me what it is for? Corrosion doesn't usually conduct, but since my issues only seem to occur when it is wet, and water and mud were getting into the quarter due to the rust hole, I'm wondering if the wet corrosion is conducting enough to cause the issues I am having.

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Second question, does the rear wiper have a discrete ground wire, or does it ground through whatever holds it in place?
 
Last edited:
From my '95 FSM:
R19 is the rear wiper
upload_2017-4-2_12-11-27.webp


upload_2017-4-2_12-10-46.webp



So no, but, full discolsure, I haven't ever looked for it. HTH
 
Pulled the trigger too soon; here's another tidbit from the groundpoints section:
upload_2017-4-2_12-14-56.webp


upload_2017-4-2_12-16-21.webp


So, apparently not. (B28 is a splice point, BT2 is a harness connector)

upload_2017-4-2_12-14-8.webp
 
There is a subwoofer in that location on LCs but the wire colors don't appear to be correct for it. Can you post a list of the wire colors in that connector? I think I see a lot of blue and that is a common color in toyotas for the wiper circuits.

Also as a short term solution (and diagnostic, in a way) you could depin that connector and isolate all of the wires.. and see if that fixes the problem.

Anyone that has seen my posts would know that I advocate for your original plan.. figure everything out, isolate, shrink wrap, back to factory (or as close as possible) but in the short term this will at least isolate a connector that clearly isn't vital to the truck working for you.
 
Thanks for the wiring diagrams. I now know which ground to hunt down and check.

I pulled all of the scotch locks, spliced, soldered, and shrink wrapped all off the trailer plug wiring. Had other obligations this afternoon, so I did not get to that mystery connector. As it hasn't been used in 20+ years, I intend to snip it off, fold the individual wires back on themselves and heat shrink the ends.
 
You can soda blast that connector and it will clean up. Get some dielectric grease too.
 
Never closed on this thread. The connector was the problem. I removed it and installed heat shrink tubing over the ends of the cut wires. All gremlins are gone I am happy to report.

The root cause is rust in the right rear rocker. The bottom of the rocker was filled with mud, and the connector was exposed to the winter road grime.
 
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