I'm in over my head on electrical issues

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badsamaritan

badsamaritan

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Threads
140
Messages
1,290
Location
San Diego, CA
Frustrated is an understatement, I'm getting pretty close to just selling this 40 and cutting my losses. I keep blowing the tail lights fuse and that has just been a rabbit hole of nasty wiring, open shorts and more blown fuses. I've thought about throwing in the towel on this harness and going with a painless or similar but with how bad this has been going I am not sure undertaking a bigger wiring job is the way to go.

If anyone in the group is good with electrical I'll host...food, beer, whatever it takes. I'm just hoping a fresh set of eyes will spot something I missed. I just really dont want to have to take it to a shop and get bent over if I dont have to.

Thanks--Mason
 
Contact @Coolerman and he will sell you all the wire and connections to build a new rear wire harness.
It will take you several hours and a few dollars and should fix all your problems.
 
badsamaritan said:
Frustrated is an understatement, I'm getting pretty close to just selling this 40 and cutting my losses. I keep blowing the tail lights fuse and that has just been a rabbit hole of nasty wiring, open shorts and more blown fuses. I've thought about throwing in the towel on this harness and going with a painless or similar but with how bad this has been going I am not sure undertaking a bigger wiring job is the way to go.

If anyone in the group is good with electrical I'll host...food, beer, whatever it takes. I'm just hoping a fresh set of eyes will spot something I missed. I just really dont want to have to take it to a shop and get bent over if I dont have to.

Thanks--Mason
Click to expand...
Probably something very simply simple, so simple it gets just a cursory look. Walk away for a day or 2 and start from the switch?
 
I definitely will, I took about a week off from it, this last time and went through a bunch of mud posts on stuff to try and to test. I've found tons of shorts, crappy splices and shoddy wiring but I still have my main problems

  1. No gauge cluster lights
  2. No turn signals
  3. No running lights.

Today I tried segmenting the harness and running continuity checks, didn't find anything crazy
 
When and where were you thinking? I have done wiring on quite a few 40s. I'd be down to take a look.
 
Being totally ignorant on 40 issues does anyone make replacement harnesses ? Sounds like this could turn into an ongoing multiple failure issue? Fix it once and forget?
 
RET2 said:
Being totally ignorant on 40 issues does anyone make replacement harnesses ? Sounds like this could turn into an ongoing multiple failure issue? Fix it once and forget?
Click to expand...


The @Coolerman is your go to guy for wiring harnesses. Parts to DIY or complete plug and play.
 
Send me your vin or month and year of mfg and I will get the wiring schematic and diagram. I have some but can get most years.

Coolerman's stuff is good if you need to go that route. Usually removing all of the garbage from PO taps will get back to the OEM design.. we might have to splice in good wire where damage might have been done.

On the other hand, if the PO removed and replaced a lot, then we can look at full loom replacement.
 
Oh, and I need to stock up on a few wiring tools and supplies but this gives me the excuse to get caught up! I have most of the stuff we will need though so we should be able to dive right in...
 
If there is beer involved then I am available. 🤣🍻🍻 If we want to set up a pretty cool and big wrench day then I know Sam had said that we are welcome over at his shop and would be more than welcome to have a bonfire and cigars. I'll message him and see his schedule. I can set up a wrench day thread if we want to do this.
 
Last edited:
badsamaritan said:
Frustrated is an understatement, I'm getting pretty close to just selling this 40 and cutting my losses. I keep blowing the tail lights fuse and that has just been a rabbit hole of nasty wiring, open shorts and more blown fuses. I've thought about throwing in the towel on this harness and going with a painless or similar but with how bad this has been going I am not sure undertaking a bigger wiring job is the way to go.

If anyone in the group is good with electrical I'll host...food, beer, whatever it takes. I'm just hoping a fresh set of eyes will spot something I missed. I just really dont want to have to take it to a shop and get bent over if I dont have to.

Thanks--Mason
Click to expand...


So yeah I could likely help. I would run new wiring, loom it all, pull out the old stuff, and make sure it is done correctly. You'd want to go on McMaster and stock up on wire, heatshrink crimps, and wire of the appropriate gauge.

Frank
 
Phulcrum said:
So yeah I could likely help. I would run new wiring, loom it all, pull out the old stuff, and make sure it is done correctly. You'd want to go on McMaster and stock up on wire, heatshrink crimps, and wire of the appropriate gauge.

Frank
Click to expand...

Good idea frank, How about the 60 next?
 
DomSmith said:
My 73 is a bit of a rats nest with lots of tapped in wires but we can certainly compare and contrast.
Click to expand...

Thanks, all help is appreciated. I even went out to Toyota of Escondido and crawled all over their 73 that is in the parts department and took all kinds of pictures to see if I could figure out some of my color combos.
 
BreckenridgeCruiser said:
Send me your vin or month and year of mfg and I will get the wiring schematic and diagram. I have some but can get most years.

Coolerman's stuff is good if you need to go that route. Usually removing all of the garbage from PO taps will get back to the OEM design.. we might have to splice in good wire where damage might have been done.

On the other hand, if the PO removed and replaced a lot, then we can look at full loom replacement.
Click to expand...

Thanks a ton.....my VIN is FJ40166505 and the VIN plate says Dec 1973. I am pretty sure I am in the range of post 9/73 where everything was built as if it's a 74. I think the bulk of the harness is actually ok. The rear sub harness is pretty trashed and I removed all the PO's crap back to the factory wiring. biggest issues I have found so far is some melted wires at the fuse block and some weird bypass of the turn signal flasher.


BreckenridgeCruiser said:
Oh, and I need to stock up on a few wiring tools and supplies but this gives me the excuse to get caught up! I have most of the stuff we will need though so we should be able to dive right in...
Click to expand...

Once you get an idea of what you need I will be happy to help with materials, just let me know.
 
Tylerh84 said:
If there is beer involved then I am available. 🤣🍻🍻 If we want to set up a pretty cool and big wrench day then I know Sam had said that we are welcome over at his shop and would be more than welcome to have a bonfire and cigars. I'll message him and see his schedule. I can set up a wrench day thread if we want to do this.
Click to expand...

As much as I would like to check out Sam's shop the 40 isn't really driveable. It does run, but no turn signals or running lights. I'd like to host, beer and bonfire is doable at my place as well! If someone else needs to do some stuff I can evict the Chevelle for the night and they are welcome to my tools and my lift (you can see it in my profile pic) it's good for small projects

Phulcrum said:
So yeah I could likely help. I would run new wiring, loom it all, pull out the old stuff, and make sure it is done correctly. You'd want to go on McMaster and stock up on wire, heatshrink crimps, and wire of the appropriate gauge.

Frank
Click to expand...

Thanks Frank I have some emails into Coolerman about parts, wire, etc. I also asked about him rebuilding the harness in event I threw in the towel, but I haven't heard anything back from him yet. My year is one of the ones he can't completely rebuild.
 
Some wiring diagrams here if you don’t already have one...

forum.ih8mud.com

FJ40 Wiring Diagrams

To lazy to buy or download an FSM or open up your FSM or PDF well then I have some pictures for you. I cannot confirm they are 100% correct but then again your probably to lazy to care.;) And if someone wants to upload these to mud please do in a post below. I'm too lazy to do it...
forum.ih8mud.com forum.ih8mud.com
 
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