Help with electrical problems (1 Viewer)

[Blacksunshyne]

I am having electrical problems with my 1970 FJ40. It has an F engine, 3 spd, all stock...etc.

My problem is, the turn signals will not work. The hazards lights work, and I am assumming, use the same wires...and of course lights. I took the directional switch off the colum and took it apart, cleaned and inspected it. It was not overly dirty or in poor shape and the tester showed I am getting power to the wires at the switch, and to the small metal plates on the other side. I have no clue where to go with this next...any ideas?

Also, the back up, or reverse light, is non functional. I will admit that I have NO idea where to even begin with this. With the ignition on and trans in reverse, it showed no power to the light socket. Is there a switch on the tranny? Another place? I tried looking it up in the Haynes manual, but it was pretty non descript about it.

Other than these two slight problems the rest of the wiring harness seems to be in good to average overall shape and all other lights function just as they should.

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated!

 

[dargreg]

There is a switch on the trany with 2 plug ins they could have been pulled apart or the wire broken to the rear.The blinker relay is up by the clutch pedal i think on that year not usually a problem ,do the turn signals come on and not blink if so you have a bulb or ground problem (white with black stripe)

 

[Pin_Head]

You don't say how they "don't work". No light? no blink?

If you have power at the switch and at the other side of the switch contacts, the bulbs should light. Did you check the voltage with the wires to the light bulbs connected? If not you could get fooled by the reading. If the voltage drops with the wires to the bulb connected, there is a bad connection upstream from the switch. The turns and flashers run off separate circuits and have separate fuses (and separate flashers up until about 1973). Check the fuses and flashers first.

 

[Blacksunshyne]

Thanks for the help first off...

There is a switch on the trany with 2 plug ins they could have been pulled apart or the wire broken to the rear.The blinker relay is up by the clutch pedal i think on that year not usually a problem ,do the turn signals come on and not blink if so you have a bulb or ground problem (white with black stripe)

I will try to locate those switches today, just knowing where and what to look for will be helpful. When I say turn signal no work...I mean it does not come on at all...no light...no flash no nothing.

You don't say how they "don't work". No light? no blink?

If you have power at the switch and at the other side of the switch contacts, the bulbs should light. Did you check the voltage with the wires to the light bulbs connected? If not you could get fooled by the reading. If the voltage drops with the wires to the bulb connected, there is a bad connection upstream from the switch. The turns and flashers run off separate circuits and have separate fuses (and separate flashers up until about 1973). Check the fuses and flashers first.

Again thanks...I assummed (ya, I know the saying) that the hazards and turn signals ran off the same wiring. I will look into this as well.



If any one else has ANY ideas on trouble shooting this please pass them along, I am stoopit when it comes to wiring.

 

[Pin_Head]

Since the hazards work, all the wiring and lamps after the switch are good. The problem has to be between the fuse block and the switch. Check the fuse, look up the color code for this wire and check it for power with the turn signals on both at the fuse block and at the connector for the turn switch. There is not much else that could be bad. On later models, the hazard switch switched power to the turn signals too, but this does not appear to be the case on 70s as they use separate flashers for the hazards and turns.

 

[handcannon]

There is a switch on the trany with 2 plug ins they could have been pulled apart or the wire broken to the rear.The blinker relay is up by the clutch pedal i think on that year not usually a problem ,do the turn signals come on and not blink if so you have a bulb or ground problem (white with black stripe)

Since you say you have a 70 year model it is very possible you still have the 3 on the tree shift linkage. If you don't find the reverse light wiring down by the tranny look under the hood at the column shift linkage. The reverse light switch may very well be found there.

 

[liko]

if you have column shift, the reverse switch is on the right near the bottom of the pic, look for the two wires coming into the pic

 

[toy4xfun]

your blinker relay is deferent than your hazzard relay very cheap and intercangable try that if your hazzards light up the bulbs than that is where i would look. by the way same wiring to the relays from the bulb different from ralays to the switches.

 

[Blacksunshyne]

OK...update from todays work, if you can call it that. I found the hazard light relay by the clutch, checks out OK of course. Then I found the directional (flasher) relay on the passenger side. Thought it might be bad and it was a cheap part, so I picked up a new one, installed it (a BP552, from O'Reliiy) Now the turn signals will work from the switch...but only when the flasher relay is grounded by the tester. So would this mean that I am chasing a bad ground? If so, can I simply ground this seperatly instead of chasing the ground down?

I will try to read up all I can and hopefully get some more work in on it next weekend.

Also my 1970 is a three in the floor...I have given up on the reverse light until my directional problem gets solved, due to my limited mental capacity with wiring...

 

[handcannon]

Also my 1970 is a three in the floor...I have given up on the reverse light until my directional problem gets solved, due to my limited mental capacity with wiring...

I have a 71 that was also converted to a floor shift. The "new" tranny top cover had the reverse switch already built in. It has been several years now since I had the tranny out for a new clutch. Consequently, memory is vague on just exactly where to look for the switch. I think it was on the back end of the top cover. Anyhow, crawl under there and look for two wires coming somewhere from on top of the tranny. One of the wires should be hot. If so jumper the two wires together and you should get power back to the backup light.

Good luck running this down.
Don

Oh, by the way, if you get power back there then the tranny switch is most likely bad.

 

[dargreg]

You are stil chasing a bad ground , most likely on the right hand side up at the front of the fender .There is one on the left also. When you find them they are bolted down undo them clean them up with sand paper and reinstall them.Remember im pretty sure they are white with black srtipe Turn signal relay that you replaced should have a green with light purple stripe and green with red stripe.Now depending on what signal lamps you have it is possible that they are grounded inside the light houseing to the fender ,bumper or what have you. good luck

 

[Pin_Head]

Now the turn signals will work from the switch...but only when the flasher relay is grounded by the tester. ...

Won't flash or won't light? One side or both?

Which part of the flasher are you grounding to where?

Some flashers need the case grounded, some don't like the stock Toyota ones.

It isn't likely a grounding issue at the lamp housings because they all work with the hazards.

 

[Blacksunshyne]

Won't flash or won't light? One side or both?

Which part of the flasher are you grounding to where?

Some flashers need the case grounded, some don't like the stock Toyota ones.

It isn't likely a grounding issue at the lamp housings because they all work with the hazards.

Without my 'self-grounding' them they will neither flash or light. Both sides.

I am grounding the 'L' post on the flasher, with the tester. I am grounding it to a bolt on the seat frame for the test.

The flasher I bought is from a parts store...not Toyota. It is a metal bodied flasher. We had to wrap it in electrical tape to make it fit into its holder on the fire wall. Could it be possible that I have made it unable to self ground by wrapping it in tape to make it fit....?

I don't think it is a ground issue at the front fenders. I have inspected those, and they are clean, and again the hazards ground there as well and work fine.

 

[Pin_Head]

I don't know what an L terminal is, but if I had to guess, I would think it means lamps.
If it works fine when you ground it, then why not ground it?

 

[Blacksunshyne]

The flasher has an 'L' and an 'X' post on it.

We tried grounding it, but it blew the fuse when we put in a perm. ground.

That is what (or at least the newest thing) that has us puzzled.

 

[Vicm]

It might be your haz switch not connecting the bulbs to the signal flasher ( when it is pushed in), try taking it out and cleaning it along with the contacts in the plug.
You could have tried your haz flasher by swaping it as a signal flasher to see if it is the signal flasher that is bad..
Can you spot something that looks like temp sender with 2 wires coming from it behind your trans shifter , that would be your reverse switch as mentioned before.

 

[Blacksunshyne]

It might be your haz switch not connecting the bulbs to the signal flasher ( when it is pushed in), try taking it out and cleaning it along with the contacts in the plug.
You could have tried your haz flasher by swaping it as a signal flasher to see if it is the signal flasher that is bad..
Can you spot something that looks like temp sender with 2 wires coming from it behind your trans shifter , that would be your reverse switch as mentioned before.

I will give that a try and see if it helps things any.

 

[dargreg]

Acording to the schematic there is a 5 amp fuse at the hasard swith hooked to the white with light purple wire that goes to the fuse box itself.Also a fusable link in the red with white wire on the turn curcuit.the L termanal goes directly to your signal switch ,the relay case has to be grounded if it is a 2 terminal a 3 termanal has a provision for the ground.If you are able to short it out to make it work be suspisous of the signal swith itself.

 

[dargreg]

Just another note and i dont know if it pertains with you, howerver i had a 76 45 last year which was doing the same thing only the left side.Turned out i had to unwrap the whole harness and found a corroded pin hole in one of the green wires going to the rear lights .Fourways would blink. left side was very dime and would not blink right side was bright and would not blink with the signal stat.

 

[Pin_Head]

There is no switching of the hot leads at the hazard switch in early (pre 73?) cruisers, so the turn power should be independent of the hazards.

The problem is likely between the turn switch and the heater fuse. Turn the switch on and check voltage at the switch, flasher terminals and fuse block on the green/light blue and green/red wires. The schematic indicates that the case of the flasher must be grounded, which is something that is not necessary on later cruisers. I was not aware of this. If grounding the case makes it work, go ahead and do it.