Builds Greetings from Seattle...Fixing up "Blue Guy"

[red66toy]

Had a weird issue pop up the other day on a drive home... One of the blinker indicator bulbs on the dash would come on when you pressed the gas pedal. I have gone through a lot of the electrics in the dash area so this was a surprise to me. I had even upgraded the grounding system.. in the front. I posted this up on IG and @HemiAlex asked if I had a trailer light harness. Answer to that is I do and I have never paid any attention to it. Well that was the mistake. hahaha. As we all know now, old trailer harnesses are usually done using terrible wire taps. Sure enough I went and peeked in the rear quarter panel and found 4 wire taps into the rear harness, AND two very frayed wires that had been rubbing on the body where the wires pass through the panel and the OEM grommet used to be.
Old trailer parasite:

Rear harness:

Damage:

So I ripped out the rear harness and its going on the bench for repairs which will include new wire splices to fix the broken wires and new grommets to seal out the water and protect the wires as they pass through the body. Based on the wire colors they may be related to the rear defrost and maybe the rear taillights (green with white stripe and red with black stripe). Hoping that fixes my non-functional rear defrost! ha. Going to take the time to upgrade the rear ground point in the back there and run a dedicated wire up to the front. Let the games begin and hopefully this fixes the issue that led me into this can of worms.

Bonus it looks like some mice at one point used this as an entry point. hahaha

 

[4Cruisers]

Yep, those are teeth marks for sure!

 

[HemiAlex]

Score!

 

[red66toy]

Alright! I got everything buttoned back up.

I got the wiring repaired and the new grommet installed. The grommet was discovered by @Bullzi so he gets full credit for the discovery. Its not easy to find a 36mm firewall grommet! This grommet is for a Nissan Z car firewall. The opening is much too large for the small rear harness. But that is a good thing because it allows you to run larger rear power wires into the rear quarter now! That is on my future project list. But in the mean time I found a 20mm diameter hose to take up the space and create a nice seal around the OEM harness. Nice and watertight now!

Best part of all is it fixed my issue! No more brake powered turn signal. BUT an interesting observation today is that one blinker side blinks faster than the other side. hahaha. I can live with that. Its no that noticeable but you can hear the tempo difference.
Next project is to scrub more of the undercarriage and give it a fluid film bath before the winter salt comes.

 

[Bullzi]

That looks great! I actually just installed mine yesterday. It might need to come back out while I tinker with the wiring back there, but it fit well 😁.

Those shotty trailer harness installs are the worst! Glad cleaning it up back there fixed your issue!

 

[red66toy]

Couple steps forward, one step back. Had a blast on the annual Christmas tree run with the Seattle Cruiserheads. A crazy trip as always. Rig ran fantastic and almost made it to the top of the mountain before I had to put chains on. Impressed with these 8 year old Toyo ATIIs, hoping the newer AT-IIIs carry the same capability. Yes I need to replace my tires. No good time is allowed though without at least one hiccup, I did discover a new and very weird electrical issue. If I turn the rear heater on high the engine will cut out! Crazy! Time to dive back in, but at least it's an issue I can avoid for the most part until I can tackle it. Love this wagon and the capability. This trip also cemented my love for my conventional headlights and fog lights. Nice and inefficient and HOT, No snow/ice buildup at all! I saw plenty of buildup on the LED headlights being run.

 

[Bullzi]

Looking good Chase!! Was sad to miss this one...next year for sure!

When I first got my truck, I was driving in Seattle traffic and I turned on my rear defrost and the truck immediately died. It wouldn't restart...put two and two together and turned the rear defrost switch off and the truck started back up. I was sweating bullets as it seemed like everyone in the world was honking at me .

Torfab took a look at it for me while I was at the shop helping with a project and we traced it down to the ignition relay going bad! I got a new one, popped it in and it was good to go. Haven't had an issue since. I'm not sure if the rear heater circuit goes through the ignition relay, but it might be worth checking out.

About a week later my lights started turning on and off while driving on I-5 at night...This continued to happen until I replaced the headlight relay and the issue was fixed. Coincidence that bot relay went bad in a couple week span? The world may never know...but both have been good for a while now! 😅

 

[Bullzi]

Well I guess I should have just looked at the wire diagram before I posted my last post...looks like the rear defrost goes through the IGN relay, but the heater circuit does not...but it could be some similar type of issue?

 

[Roonie]

Couple steps forward, one step back. Had a blast on the annual Christmas tree run with the Seattle Cruiserheads. A crazy trip as always. Rig ran fantastic and almost made it to the top of the mountain before I had to put chains on. Impressed with these 8 year old Toyo ATIIs, hoping the newer AT-IIIs carry the same capability. Yes I need to replace my tires.

Missed this x-mas tree run....... I run the new ATIII on my cruiser and they are everything the ATII are as I had those before.

 

[red66toy]

Looking good Chase!! Was sad to miss this one...next year for sure!

When I first got my truck, I was driving in Seattle traffic and I turned on my rear defrost and the truck immediately died. It wouldn't restart...put two and two together and turned the rear defrost switch off and the truck started back up. I was sweating bullets as it seemed like everyone in the world was honking at me .

Torfab took a look at it for me while I was at the shop helping with a project and we traced it down to the ignition relay going bad! I got a new one, popped it in and it was good to go. Haven't had an issue since. I'm not sure if the rear heater circuit goes through the ignition relay, but it might be worth checking out.

About a week later my lights started turning on and off while driving on I-5 at night...This continued to happen until I replaced the headlight relay and the issue was fixed. Coincidence that bot relay went bad in a couple week span? The world may never know...but both have been good for a while now! 😅

Thanks! Yeah this is a totally new problem. Hopefully a easy and available relay swap is in order . Time to do the deep dive in the wiring diagrams and taking out the center console to inspect the wiring.

 

[red66toy]

Missed this x-mas tree run....... I run the new ATIII on my cruiser and they are everything the ATII are as I had those before.

That is great to hear! Picking tires is brutal, so many choices. I was torn between these and the Geolandars.

 

[Beerfix]

Couple steps forward, one step back. Had a blast on the annual Christmas tree run with the Seattle Cruiserheads. A crazy trip as always. Rig ran fantastic and almost made it to the top of the mountain before I had to put chains on. Impressed with these 8 year old Toyo ATIIs, hoping the newer AT-IIIs carry the same capability. Yes I need to replace my tires. No good time is allowed though without at least one hiccup, I did discover a new and very weird electrical issue. If I turn the rear heater on high the engine will cut out! Crazy! Time to dive back in, but at least it's an issue I can avoid for the most part until I can tackle it. Love this wagon and the capability. This trip also cemented my love for my conventional headlights and fog lights. Nice and inefficient and HOT, No snow/ice buildup at all! I saw plenty of buildup on the LED headlights being run.

Sorry I missed this one too, looked like a great time! But work had different plans for me that weekend. Yeah, had LEDs on my... ahem, 4Runner, never again. Love my Koito H4s. No more getting out to clear snow in the wet cold dark.

 

[red66toy]

Sorry I missed this one too, looked like a great time! But work had different plans for me that weekend. Yeah, had LEDs on my... ahem, 4Runner, never again. Love my Koito H4s. No more getting out to clear snow in the wet cold dark.

Yeah it was a bummer you couldn't make it. Definitely another snow run soon though!

 

[Beerfix]

Yeah it was a bummer you couldn't make it. Definitely another snow run soon though!

Me and short stuff have 2 weeks off starting the 18th, Cruiser is ready to go, need to try out those new tires in the snow. Darrington maybe? Hit me up if you want to get out.

 

[NookShneer]

You need to get @mr2m1 to get in on that. He knows that area well.

 

[red66toy]

Rear heater fan stopped working on high..... Time to replace the resistor! It's been about 6 years since I put in a new aftermarket one. Should have gone with OE in the first place but I couldn't find at the time.

 

[NookShneer]

Rear heater fan stopped working on high..... Time to replace the resistor! It's been about 6 years since I put in a new aftermarket one. Should have gone with OE in the first place but I couldn't find at the time.
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So that was what was making the high idle sound back in Dec? Easy electrical fixes are the best.

 

[red66toy]

Impromptu rear door refresh going on. I am taking the opportunity to just go crazy and clean and replace all that I can. Both rear windows were SUPER slow so it was time anyways. I had to push very hard to even get the window to go down in the first place. hahaha.
Needless to say, I am going as deep as I can. Motor getting cleaned and fresh grease.

 

[red66toy]

When a box from @Racer65 comes you know it’s a good day.
Last weather stripping parts I needed to complete the rear door refresh! Door seals and quarter window seals .

 

[red66toy]

Alright! Got the rear door back together. All new rubber, cleaned up motor and greased gears. I put rust converter on a few spots and coated them and inside seams in Fluid Film.
Even though its still slow... it goes up and down on its own! Huge huge improvement seeing as I could hang on the window before and it still wouldn't want to go down.


But I noticed the window was slower with the master switch actuating it vs the door switch. So I turned my attention to my original switch. I had a new one on the shelf for years but for some reason I was putting it off. Today was the day! New switch, cleaned the contacts on the door harness and installed a new handle bezel. The little details add up.

Took apart the old switch to peek inside. The old contacts were definitely dirty! I am sure if I cleaned them up it would work a lot better. I'll keep it as a spare I suppose. Still life potential in it after a cleaning.