I got myself a 1991 JDM cruiser a few months ago, after wanting, searching, and researching for nearly 2 years!
I was even more impressed when I finally received it... Anyways it came with all the goods, lockers, VX trim, aftermarket rims, and a factory electric winch... But no winch control...
These cruisers come with the norm/sport suspension switch, which was not being because I put the Slee 4" lift in. Sooo after some thought I figured there has to be a way to use this switch as an interior switch for the winch.
Here's how I did it, and I'm by no means and electrician so criticize all you want and if you see that I have done something potentially stupid, I would love to know.
I started by removing the wiring harness and remote control adapter on the winch, and determining what wires did what...
Wiring harness from the winch spliced from the the remote connector.
View attachment 335611
BLACK = GND
WHITE = 12v
BLUE w/ red stripe = WINCH IN
BLUE w/ white stripe = WINCH OUT
GREEN = temp (not used)
WHITE w/ blue stripe = ??? (not used)
Next I took apart the suspension control to see what I was dealing with there and try to figure how I could make it work. I was able to force the pins out of the connecting harness. Next I needed to remove the other end of the wiring harness from the control casing to what was connected to what.
View attachment 335619
View attachment 335620
After a bit trial and error I realized that I would need to separate some of the contact points and solder some new ones between other points.
This is how I did it and seemed, to me at least, the only/easiest way to convert the control. I separated a connection between two contacts on the front and backside of the switch and made a solder between the top and bottom of each contact point on the left and right side of the switch... Hope my "painted" pics are alright.
On the control switch I then used BLUE = 12v, WHITE = GND, RED = WINCH IN, and BLACK = WINCH OUT. What you will have is the the two center contacts on the switch will be the +/- and when the switch is pushed left or right to one of the other contacts, being the in/out contacts, it will complete the connection. I ran the wires from the winch up through the battery on the drivers side and through pretty much the only easilly accessible hole in the firewall. It was a little tough getting 4 wires through the rubber cover but its doable. After this I fed a string from spot where the switch was to be place back along the steering column so that I could tie it to wires and then simply pull them up and trough the hole instead of trying to feed the wires up and out. Made the connections on the switch and done.
Works great in my opinion, but I wanted to have a master on/ switch just in case I might bump the switch at some point. The simplest way I figured to do this was create a break in the 12v wire and place a simple on/off rocker switch. I filed out one of the coin holders in the center console and snapped a switch in there, ran the wires under the shifter panel... works good, looks good. The only thing as that I thought the master switch would light up when switched on, but it actually only lights up when the winch is used. Oh well.
Heres the rest of the pics, hope you enjoy, and please critisize!
I was even more impressed when I finally received it... Anyways it came with all the goods, lockers, VX trim, aftermarket rims, and a factory electric winch... But no winch control...
These cruisers come with the norm/sport suspension switch, which was not being because I put the Slee 4" lift in. Sooo after some thought I figured there has to be a way to use this switch as an interior switch for the winch.
Here's how I did it, and I'm by no means and electrician so criticize all you want and if you see that I have done something potentially stupid, I would love to know.
I started by removing the wiring harness and remote control adapter on the winch, and determining what wires did what...
Wiring harness from the winch spliced from the the remote connector.
View attachment 335611
BLACK = GND
WHITE = 12v
BLUE w/ red stripe = WINCH IN
BLUE w/ white stripe = WINCH OUT
GREEN = temp (not used)
WHITE w/ blue stripe = ??? (not used)
Next I took apart the suspension control to see what I was dealing with there and try to figure how I could make it work. I was able to force the pins out of the connecting harness. Next I needed to remove the other end of the wiring harness from the control casing to what was connected to what.
View attachment 335619
View attachment 335620
After a bit trial and error I realized that I would need to separate some of the contact points and solder some new ones between other points.
This is how I did it and seemed, to me at least, the only/easiest way to convert the control. I separated a connection between two contacts on the front and backside of the switch and made a solder between the top and bottom of each contact point on the left and right side of the switch... Hope my "painted" pics are alright.
On the control switch I then used BLUE = 12v, WHITE = GND, RED = WINCH IN, and BLACK = WINCH OUT. What you will have is the the two center contacts on the switch will be the +/- and when the switch is pushed left or right to one of the other contacts, being the in/out contacts, it will complete the connection. I ran the wires from the winch up through the battery on the drivers side and through pretty much the only easilly accessible hole in the firewall. It was a little tough getting 4 wires through the rubber cover but its doable. After this I fed a string from spot where the switch was to be place back along the steering column so that I could tie it to wires and then simply pull them up and trough the hole instead of trying to feed the wires up and out. Made the connections on the switch and done.
Works great in my opinion, but I wanted to have a master on/ switch just in case I might bump the switch at some point. The simplest way I figured to do this was create a break in the 12v wire and place a simple on/off rocker switch. I filed out one of the coin holders in the center console and snapped a switch in there, ran the wires under the shifter panel... works good, looks good. The only thing as that I thought the master switch would light up when switched on, but it actually only lights up when the winch is used. Oh well.
Heres the rest of the pics, hope you enjoy, and please critisize!
