So… I was sick of the single speed intermittent wiper setting on my 85FJ60 - it was always too slow or too fast.
I learned from mud that the wiper controller assembly [that contains the wiper stalk, the turn signal stalk and the hazard switch] from a mid 80s Toyota mini truck (and maybe other mid 80s Toyotas), has a 4 speed intermittent controller. I'd read about this swap in a couple of other threads here on mud... it was supposed to be a straight plug-n-play swap so I decided to do it.
Well it does work and I love it but it is not QUITE a simple swap. I thought I'd document the gotchas and my solutions to them here with the hope of improving the rainy day driving experience for some other 60 drivers.
-----------------------------------------------------
Pictures follow - I hope this helps.
What works without modification:
General fitment of the assembly
Wiring harness connector
Functionality
What needs some fiddling:
The bend in the stalks
The collar that deactivates the turn signal when coming out of a turn
Hazard switch and column cover
-----------------------------------------------------
To make this all happen you need to remove your steering wheel. If you are smart you will park the truck with the wheels straight ahead to make it easier to get the wheel back on straight when you are done. (Ask me how I know)
To get the wheel off you need to remove the cover that contains the 3 horn buttons. There are 3 screws that come in from the back side - a stubby phillips screwdriver is useful here. There is a wire for the horns that will need to be pulled off of it's spade connector as you pull the cover off - remember to put this back in reassembly!
Then you'll need to remove the nut holding the steering wheel to the steering column shaft. Once that nut is off a steering wheel puller is used to pop the wheel off of the splined shaft.
The steering column cover comes off next. There are 3-4 screws up from the bottom holding the 2 halves of the cover together and then a couple of screws holding the bottom half to the column.
Now you can attack the wire harness. This is held in place in a way that will make you think they were afraid this would somehow want to come loose. The blue plug at the end of the harness is screwed down and there are a couple of brackets holding the wires in place - one a clip on, the other is screwed down - Talk about over built!
Next the assembly itself can be removed - there are 4 screws facing the driver to remove for this. Take the old one off and put the new one in place… but wait… This is where you’ll want to straighten out the bend in each of the stalks some. In the pictures I had seen here the guy was using a Grant steering wheel. I guess this avoided the problem I ran into.
The truck stalks are bent towards the driver significantly more than the FJ60 stalks. This results in them being uncomfortably close to your knuckles when you have your hands on the steering wheels driving… just about a nickel’s width for the wiper stalk, a bit more for the turn signal side. VERY CAREFULLY bend these stalks back towards straight. They are thin metal hollow tubes (with wires inside) and can easily break! They are attached to 25 year old plastic bits that can easily break – proceed at your own risk! This will be MUCH easier to do before you install the assembly in the column but feel free to test fit it up to see how tight it is. I bent mine out about 1/2 “ each.
Now just put it all back together… Reassembly is the reverse of the above. Don’t forget to line up the wheel on the column and make sure the turn signal deactivation thingy is lined up right…
BUT WAIT! The plastic deactivation collar on the assembly that slides in and out towards the driver needs to have it’s little tabs on the front aligned with the holes on the back side of the steering wheel. This engagement causes the collar to rotate with the wheel while some ribs along the side of the collar bump the turn signal mechanism popping off your turn signals as you come out of a corner. If the tabs don’t align in the holes the wheel will go on but the turn signals won’t deactivate correctly. (Ask me how I know)
The problem with this is that my FJ60 set-up had 3 tabs/holes and the truck’s had just 2 – and the 2 tabs didn’t line up with any 2 of the tabs on my steering wheel. My solution, suggested by my son as I was about to try to disassemble the whole thing to try to swap collars, was to drill a matching hole in the steering wheel. We just drilled deep enough to engage the 2nd tab and it all worked fine.
NOW you can put it all back together. Go as far as bolting on the steering wheel but leave off the column cover and wheel cover/horn button piece. Test all of the stalk functions. Drive the truck to see that the wheel is aligned correctly (be careful, you won’t have any horns – and that is probably illegal)
Button up the covers (oh, yeah - you are going to have to cut out a bit of your column top cover to accommodate the hazard switch. On the truck it is front back and the 60 is side to side... see the pics) and enjoy your intermittent wiper functionality!
-----------------------------------------------------
ALL DONE:
I learned from mud that the wiper controller assembly [that contains the wiper stalk, the turn signal stalk and the hazard switch] from a mid 80s Toyota mini truck (and maybe other mid 80s Toyotas), has a 4 speed intermittent controller. I'd read about this swap in a couple of other threads here on mud... it was supposed to be a straight plug-n-play swap so I decided to do it.
Well it does work and I love it but it is not QUITE a simple swap. I thought I'd document the gotchas and my solutions to them here with the hope of improving the rainy day driving experience for some other 60 drivers.
-----------------------------------------------------
Pictures follow - I hope this helps.
What works without modification:
General fitment of the assembly
Wiring harness connector
Functionality
What needs some fiddling:
The bend in the stalks
The collar that deactivates the turn signal when coming out of a turn
Hazard switch and column cover
-----------------------------------------------------
To make this all happen you need to remove your steering wheel. If you are smart you will park the truck with the wheels straight ahead to make it easier to get the wheel back on straight when you are done. (Ask me how I know)
To get the wheel off you need to remove the cover that contains the 3 horn buttons. There are 3 screws that come in from the back side - a stubby phillips screwdriver is useful here. There is a wire for the horns that will need to be pulled off of it's spade connector as you pull the cover off - remember to put this back in reassembly!
Then you'll need to remove the nut holding the steering wheel to the steering column shaft. Once that nut is off a steering wheel puller is used to pop the wheel off of the splined shaft.
The steering column cover comes off next. There are 3-4 screws up from the bottom holding the 2 halves of the cover together and then a couple of screws holding the bottom half to the column.
Now you can attack the wire harness. This is held in place in a way that will make you think they were afraid this would somehow want to come loose. The blue plug at the end of the harness is screwed down and there are a couple of brackets holding the wires in place - one a clip on, the other is screwed down - Talk about over built!
Next the assembly itself can be removed - there are 4 screws facing the driver to remove for this. Take the old one off and put the new one in place… but wait… This is where you’ll want to straighten out the bend in each of the stalks some. In the pictures I had seen here the guy was using a Grant steering wheel. I guess this avoided the problem I ran into.
The truck stalks are bent towards the driver significantly more than the FJ60 stalks. This results in them being uncomfortably close to your knuckles when you have your hands on the steering wheels driving… just about a nickel’s width for the wiper stalk, a bit more for the turn signal side. VERY CAREFULLY bend these stalks back towards straight. They are thin metal hollow tubes (with wires inside) and can easily break! They are attached to 25 year old plastic bits that can easily break – proceed at your own risk! This will be MUCH easier to do before you install the assembly in the column but feel free to test fit it up to see how tight it is. I bent mine out about 1/2 “ each.
Now just put it all back together… Reassembly is the reverse of the above. Don’t forget to line up the wheel on the column and make sure the turn signal deactivation thingy is lined up right…
BUT WAIT! The plastic deactivation collar on the assembly that slides in and out towards the driver needs to have it’s little tabs on the front aligned with the holes on the back side of the steering wheel. This engagement causes the collar to rotate with the wheel while some ribs along the side of the collar bump the turn signal mechanism popping off your turn signals as you come out of a corner. If the tabs don’t align in the holes the wheel will go on but the turn signals won’t deactivate correctly. (Ask me how I know)
The problem with this is that my FJ60 set-up had 3 tabs/holes and the truck’s had just 2 – and the 2 tabs didn’t line up with any 2 of the tabs on my steering wheel. My solution, suggested by my son as I was about to try to disassemble the whole thing to try to swap collars, was to drill a matching hole in the steering wheel. We just drilled deep enough to engage the 2nd tab and it all worked fine.
NOW you can put it all back together. Go as far as bolting on the steering wheel but leave off the column cover and wheel cover/horn button piece. Test all of the stalk functions. Drive the truck to see that the wheel is aligned correctly (be careful, you won’t have any horns – and that is probably illegal)
Button up the covers (oh, yeah - you are going to have to cut out a bit of your column top cover to accommodate the hazard switch. On the truck it is front back and the 60 is side to side... see the pics) and enjoy your intermittent wiper functionality!
-----------------------------------------------------
ALL DONE:
Last edited:
