What is this black box in my kick panel?

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mechanist

mechanist

10 Year
Joined
Feb 23, 2015
Threads
40
Messages
839
Location
Simpsonville,SC
Is it the RS3000?

Is it some other aftermarket alarm? I'm trying to track down a parasitic draw, but when my negative is disconnected it sets off some kind of alarm. A PO cut the siren so at least it's silent. The relay for the horn has also been removed (other drivers think I'm less of an a-hole so I guess that's good).

I need my horn back so other drivers will feel my horn-rage. Also I'm sick of my battery being dead every Monday morning.

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Yep, 1st -aftermarket alarm & 2nd is a generic relay.

Also in your 3rd pic that plunger switch mounted to the firewall is alarm related, so it can be deleted.

The horn should be on the core support IIRC (been awhile) - so that siren can get heaved.
 
Not factory, but not sure what all is happening in your harness.

30a leads me to think alot more than an alarm where 5-7.5a is fine, but no clue.

Not the norm, but was there a stereo amp of some kind, or foglights added - full guess, no clue. - ???
 
LINUS said:
Not factory, but not sure what all is happening in your harness.

30a leads me to think alot more than an alarm where 5-7.5a is fine, but no clue.

Not the norm, but was there a stereo amp of some kind, or foglights added - full guess, no clue. - ???
Click to expand...

Actually yes: IPF lamps up front. That must be it. Thanks for your help @LINUS

Do you by an chance remember who wrote
the detailed write-up on the RS3000 removal?

I've been in search today since about 6:30pm and have found some stuff, but not a detailed write-up like people keep mentioning, and today is not the first time I've searched. This whole past week has been focused on threads about alarms. There might be a T in the harness connected to the relay above, but the other two ends of it are not immediately apparent.

The alarm may be the source of my parasitic draw, but it's also preventing me from doing any further troubleshooting in that regard.
 
You got me. The best I know from the RS3000 stuff was the swap/upgrade where there's a pinout of it the 3rd or 4th post. Best info I recall, but I get all my alarm work done by my buddy who runs a independant shop.

I just absorb what he says, and I know general vehicle / house / refinery wiring.

Thread:

Upgrade RS3000 to other alarm without going under the dash. - Tutorial

Beyond that, drop 'rs3000 ih8mud' into google - you may see the thread you recall.
 
Machinst, I just went through this when i removed a aftermarket alarm in my truck. All you need to do is trace each wire coming out of your alarms brain box to find where they tie into your factory wiring harness. Once you've found where each wire cuts into your factory harness, just remove the alarm wires from the wiring harness, and reconnect any factory wires that were cut. One of those relays you showed is a starter cut out. In my case they cut into the factory wiring harness where it comes out of the passenger side firewall in the engine bay. All i needed to do was cut the wires leading from the relay, and then reconnect the factory starter wires in my harness. All in all it should not take you more then 1/2 hour to remove that alarm, and reconnect all the factory wires. I removed my alarm because the PO didn't give me any key fobs for it, plus i didn't want it to start acting up when i was miles from home.
 
Rifleman said:
Machinst, I just went through this when i removed a aftermarket alarm in my truck. All you need to do is trace each wire coming out of your alarms brain box to find where they tie into your factory wiring harness. Once you've found where each wire cuts into your factory harness, just remove the alarm wires from the wiring harness, and reconnect any factory wires that were cut. One of those relays you showed is a starter cut out. In my case they cut into the factory wiring harness where it comes out of the passenger side firewall in the engine bay. All i needed to do was cut the wires leading from the relay, and then reconnect the factory starter wires in my harness. All in all it should not take you more then 1/2 hour to remove that alarm, and reconnect all the factory wires. I removed my alarm because the PO didn't give me any key fobs for it, plus i didn't want it to start acting up when i was miles from home.
Click to expand...


I'm NOT the OP.
I've been trying to find a random parasitic drain on my 96 LC for over 2 months. I came out out of a restaurant last week to discover the parking lights on. When I used he key to open the door, nothing unusual happened. My switch for the lights was still in the OFF position. I tried turning them on, then off. No change.

I tried to start the truck. No ignition at all.

I had to open the hood and disconnect the negative battery post, sit for a few minutes to clear, then put it back on and drove home.

Last night, as I started to rearrange my vehicles in the driveway to get ready for the week, I jumped into the LC, started it up, and as I put it in gear to back up, the horn honked and the interior lights started to blink. When I stepped on the brake, the horn stopped, then started again, and over the next few minutes, basically, the electrical system on the truck was "possessed" but it was still running and driveable, until the horn stuck ON.

I drove it back up the drive, put it in park, shut it off, and the horn kept going and all the interior lights were on. I unhooked the battery to shut it off.

It was time to remove the RS3000. I've owned the truck for 4 years and put 60K on it, and I have never had a key FOB for the alarm. I didn't really know if the alarm worked or not.

Only gonna take a half hour......no problem........It's only 6:30 PM on a Sunday night.....I can be done by 7:00......

I FINALLY had all the crap TORE APART by 10:00 PM. Then I had to put it back together enough to drive it to work today. I got done about 11:00.

By the time I traced all the wires under carpet, across under the dash, up around the control module behind the dash, I had half my truck tore apart. One wire went across under the dash over towards the center console. Must be the PNS switch wire right?.....No. It went all the way across and up above the golve box. Had to remove the glove box.......only to find the damn thing was a blind wire.....Must be the antenna wire for the remote or something.

Whoever did the original install did a nice, neat job, and must have used 20+ zip ties. I followed the wires because I followed the Non-standard colored zip ties to follow the wire path.

I focused ENTIRELY on the alarm first. Once I got that out of the way, then I wanted to figure out a different rat's nest of wires....the mobile phone installation. Turns out, those wires had already been cut., it was just a matter of tracing them and pulling them (and the speaker).

My truck's a few pounds lighter now and w WHOLE lot cleaner from a wiring standpoint.

It appears that the under-hood sensor was in a position that it was gathering water and shorting out. Not to mention that last November, I had a can of Coke explode under my driver's seat right on top of the alarm box. I'm surprised it took this long for it to freak out.

Usually, my formula of "Times two and add thirty" work for how long it takes for me to accomplish the time estimates posted by the other "master craftsmen" on here. Definitely not this time! That would have been an hour and a half on the outside! I currently have 4-1/2 hours in it and I still have to put the center console back in, all the under-dash stuff including re-mounting the computer under there, and installing the air duct and cover plates.

Of course, while I'm in there, I should do the steering shaft seal/bearing, the pin-7 mod (see what I did there @jonheld ?) and then change the seat cover on the DS, vacuum out the truck, and THEN, maybe I will trust it again........
 
BILT4ME said:
I'm NOT the OP.
I've been trying to find a random parasitic drain on my 96 LC for over 2 months. I came out out of a restaurant last week to discover the parking lights on. When I used he key to open the door, nothing unusual happened. My switch for the lights was still in the OFF position. I tried turning them on, then off. No change.

I tried to start the truck. No ignition at all.

I had to open the hood and disconnect the negative battery post, sit for a few minutes to clear, then put it back on and drove home.

Last night, as I started to rearrange my vehicles in the driveway to get ready for the week, I jumped into the LC, started it up, and as I put it in gear to back up, the horn honked and the interior lights started to blink. When I stepped on the brake, the horn stopped, then started again, and over the next few minutes, basically, the electrical system on the truck was "possessed" but it was still running and driveable, until the horn stuck ON.

I drove it back up the drive, put it in park, shut it off, and the horn kept going and all the interior lights were on. I unhooked the battery to shut it off.

It was time to remove the RS3000. I've owned the truck for 4 years and put 60K on it, and I have never had a key FOB for the alarm. I didn't really know if the alarm worked or not.

Only gonna take a half hour......no problem........It's only 6:30 PM on a Sunday night.....I can be done by 7:00......

I FINALLY had all the crap TORE APART by 10:00 PM. Then I had to put it back together enough to drive it to work today. I got done about 11:00.

By the time I traced all the wires under carpet, across under the dash, up around the control module behind the dash, I had half my truck tore apart. One wire went across under the dash over towards the center console. Must be the PNS switch wire right?.....No. It went all the way across and up above the golve box. Had to remove the glove box.......only to find the damn thing was a blind wire.....Must be the antenna wire for the remote or something.

Whoever did the original install did a nice, neat job, and must have used 20+ zip ties. I followed the wires because I followed the Non-standard colored zip ties to follow the wire path.

I focused ENTIRELY on the alarm first. Once I got that out of the way, then I wanted to figure out a different rat's nest of wires....the mobile phone installation. Turns out, those wires had already been cut., it was just a matter of tracing them and pulling them (and the speaker).

My truck's a few pounds lighter now and w WHOLE lot cleaner from a wiring standpoint.

It appears that the under-hood sensor was in a position that it was gathering water and shorting out. Not to mention that last November, I had a can of Coke explode under my driver's seat right on top of the alarm box. I'm surprised it took this long for it to freak out.

Usually, my formula of "Times two and add thirty" work for how long it takes for me to accomplish the time estimates posted by the other "master craftsmen" on here. Definitely not this time! That would have been an hour and a half on the outside! I currently have 4-1/2 hours in it and I still have to put the center console back in, all the under-dash stuff including re-mounting the computer under there, and installing the air duct and cover plates.

Of course, while I'm in there, I should do the steering shaft seal/bearing, the pin-7 mod (see what I did there @jonheld ?) and then change the seat cover on the DS, vacuum out the truck, and THEN, maybe I will trust it again........
Click to expand...

Bilt4me, so sorry removing your alarm caused you so much work. The reason mine only took me 30 minutes to remove, was because mine was an aftermarket alarm without all the "extras" your factory alarm came with. In my case i only needed to remove the drivers side lower kick panel, and the plastic panel under the steering column to get at the wiring connections i needed to repair. One item i would take a little extra time on while doing this job. When i reconnected the starter wires in my engine bay, I went to the extra trouble of soldering those wires back together, and covered them with adhesive lined shrink tubing. You see if that connection fails, your starter won't engage when you turn your key. With hot weather coming, it's not the kind of problem i wanted to be trouble shooting miles from home, so i felt it was worth the extra effort.
 
For some reason, anymore if someone states a 2-hour fix, mine is usually 2-days. So, yeah, I guess I'm close.......1/2 hour = 1/2 day........

It's all good.

I am very relieved to have it gone. I have never been a "gadget guy", but I'm glad it still has power locks and windows and A/C. I don;t really care if I have a key fob with an alarm and auto start and all that.

I haven't figured out WHY I'm so slow, but I know eyesight and memory contribute a lot of it.


I'm not sure why I'm so slow, but I'm sure memory and eyesight have a lot to do with it........
 
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