Trailer Lights (1 Viewer)

[GreyGoose]

I have an '89 62-series cruiser with a tow hitch; however, there is no connection for hooking up trailer lights. Does anyone have a recommendation for installing a simple connection? Many thanks, GreyGoose

 

[Tinker]

The wires are in the left rear fender by the rear washer pump IIRC. You'll have to buzz them out with a test light. There really isn't an easy way to do this.

I hard-wired the setup in my '83, but I think I'm going to take my preferred route for my '84: direct wire from the battery to a relay/fuse block that uses the tail light/brake light circuits to energize the relays that carry fused current to the trailer light socket. Bright lights on the 60, bright lights on the trailer, & no more trailer electrical problems shorting out the truck.

 

[GreyGoose]

Thanks Tinker!
I'll dig out the wires. Do you have a store or on-line recommendation to find the installation kit for round-female socket? I'm looking to tow a boat, and my trailer has the round connector for tail/brake/blinker lights...GreyGoose

 

[OlympiaFJ60]

Napa, Schick's or even Uhall will have what you are looking for. Since you have amber turn signals and red brake lights, you will need to get a converter. The above stores will have that too. The wire connector by the rear washer bottle is the best place to hook up the converter because it has the circuits for both sides. I will try and look up the wiring diagram.

 

[GreyGoose]

Thanks Olympia!
I appreciate the help from a fellow FJ Cruiser-owning Washtonian. I'll be stopping by the auto parts store today.-GreyGoose

 

[calphi27]

I am about to hook up trailer lights and was wondering if there was a t- connection for the FJ-62. Looks like it would plug right in the drivers side rear quarter panel. Have you guys seen or used one? Where might I find one?

 

[Eporter]

I have a hitch, but no wiring. Then I opened up the panel and found my 83 60 had been wired before! The converter was all dirty, but amazingly it still worked, barely. Most of the connections where someone spliced into the wiring were oxidized and not conducting well. I re-soldered all the scotch-lock connections and heat-shrink wire nutted them all. Re-soldered the connections to the converter, put it in a radio shack "project box" and bought a new trailer wiring connector at NAPA.

Basically, I redid all the connections. It would've been less work if I had done it from scratch! Not too hard IMHO. Definitely need a multimeter, a soldering iron, wire caps, and electrical tape.

Napa wanted 75 for the direct "plug in" kit with proper harnesses and all that. For about $30 I bought everything I needed, and eliminated some potential short-circuit problems.

With the soldering/wire nut/heat shrink/electrical tape approach, those wired connections will last longer than the truck!

Kinda neat to learn some basic cruiser wiring skills and save some $$$.

 

[calphi27]

I looked in the quarter panel, and noticed that all the wires had been taped over. Upon further review, they had been opened up for testing. I also found exposed wires near the rear end of the fuel tank. My cruiser has been in my family, and I was shocked to see this poor work. The only thing I can think is that when they replaced the recalled fuel tank, they must have pinched the wires and had to fix whatever problem they created. It sucks to find that crap so many years down the road.

This week sometime I am just going to connect the wires to the ones in the rear panel and be done with it. I am going to cut a whole in my bumper to mount it.