old FJ40 electrical issues

[williamhamilton]

HI all, after a couple of mud swims at Rallywoods my toy started to show some electrical gremlins.. changed some fuses and all was fine I thought (after a bit of a mission if you read 10 May thread). Went to use it on the weekend and voila gremlins are back - looked to be a loose fuse holder initially but now things get worse. Will not fire - whether it is the engine disable playing with my mind or something else I am yet to find out.

As much as I am comfy with electricals and electronics in the real world auto electricals are all too weird.. maybe it is the cramped conditions and funny shapes I need to fold my body into to get close to things.

To make a short story long as I have done - the engine is non-std (see sig below) - would it be naive of me to assume that the wire colours are the same as standard (I found a wiring diagram on the Net)? Any good sources of info on auto electricals I should be checking out before getting my tester out?

cheers

W

[donjohnson]

Buy some contact cleaner from supercheap, ripco, or somewhere like that and spray the shit out of any connector that is covered in mud. Most likely it's an intermittent connection on something major.

[Beer_Cruiser]

Have you checked your Altenator
Rallywoods mud has killed a few. I've done 1 and I don't know how many Taz has replaced(he mite not know either)

[MNC]

If you don't have a cover on your fuse box it could be those contacts too. I've been through the same thing... Just had to clean up all the contacts.

[wopass]

i had serious issues with my wiring loom as well so i just took to it with the side cutters and chopped the whole fkn lot out and made my own seems to work ok so far

[williamhamilton]

i had serious issues with my wiring loom as well so i just took to it with the side cutters and chopped the whole fkn lot out and made my own seems to work ok so far

I was hoping not to have to go this far but we shall see. I will not get a chance to have much of a look for a couple of weeks but have enough time to do some "make my own loom 101" reading.

I do not have a cover for my fuse box, I think it woulkd be an idea to get one, there was a bit of corrosion on a couple of the old fuses.

Beer_Cruiser - I thought about a new alternator so I can drive some big spots for night driving (assuming they will stay on that is - _and_ to run the beer cooler trailer) so may be a matter of course whatever the current fault is - never having replaced an alternator I may ask for some suggestion if/when that happens.

cheers for the comments

W

[Sadam_Husain]

You dont have to jump into the deep end and try and rewire the whole lot in one go, you could recable the ignition, chargeing and headlights to start with and that should make your truck reliable enough to run around in it again and you can worry about all the rest of the crap later on

[muddy]

You sure it's the ignition? - the aisan carb has a fuel cutoff solenoid as well so if that's shorted you'll get no fuel..

[Sadam_Husain]

You sure it's the ignition? - the aisan carb has a fuel cutoff solenoid as well so if that's shorted you'll get no fuel..

its got a small block chev in it and most probably a holley carb

Yeah I remember those solanoids in my old 40 series, I used to steal all the fuses out of the fuse box to keep my headlights going and found out about that one, the truck would keep going ok but it wouldnt idle

[williamhamilton]

Finally got a chance to take a look at the fault and for sure it looks to be at least include the alternator - smoke coming from it is not a good thing Anyone have an alternator suitable for a 283 for sale? High amp to run extra lights etc would be grand. Will keep digging as at this stage assuming more than one fault.

[skid]

do it right first time

spend the coin and get a really good alternator

I had all sorts of electrical gremlins in my 350 powered 40, mainly to do with wiring and fuses not coping

my electric fan went from 15amp to 20, then 30, then 50, then a 6 inch nail which you could see getting red, so I think it had a wiring problem somewhere.

I had plans to rewire mine completely leaving only what is necessary and routing everything thru a marine type of fuse box mounted on the dash where its easy to get to.

whatever you do make sure you don't skimp on the good bits otherwise you will end up always buying second hand shite when you could of done it right first time.

and another small sidenote.................

theres a reason why I always shied away from mud bogs and water holes

and if you decide that you really have to thras it thru water and mud then make sure everything is waterproofed and try to seal the engine compartment off as much as possible.