Terrys87

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Thanks Dutch.. There is a lot of time involved in cleaning. I eventually am going to have it all shined up. Are you an Electrical Guru? Need some help.

Maybe somebody can help me. I have been having rear window switch issues. I new it was a loose wire as I pulled the console to put sound deadner on the floorboard. I pulled the wiring harness to hard.

The previous owner had a ground wire running from the Blue with Redstripe to a ground.
I had unhooked it and then the window wouldnt work at all. Hooked it back up and made sure it was grounded good and it works great. The problem was I had loosened the ground and had to move the whole console to get it working.

I thought no problem Blue/ Red was a ground wire. In Haynes the color coding is L for Blue and R for Red. Then I went and looked in the manual thinking it would eventually run to ground. Doesnt appear that way to me. It works great now though. It is on Page 12-23 in the Haynes Manual.

The White plug is connected to the UP/Down Switch. The Black plug goes to the harness.

The Green wire that is taped to the Blue/Red is the ground wire by PO.

Also, the Window lock switch works like it should. It is not like the ground wire is bypassing it.

PO's wire job.


Haynes "L" for Blue, "R" for Red. Key is pointing to wire.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Hey, ...... you gonna have constant power to that? I've seen guys do that.... but I decided against it, reason being? >>>> THIEVES! Sure, most thieves would know it's wired to the IGN. But, .....the dumb ones that got my buddy's tools? Nope, they didn't know, lol. They just broke his sliding side window, got in, messed around and musta said, "WOW, THE REAR WINDOW IS GOING DOWN, LET'S RAPE HIS TOOL BOX!" lol. Anyway, ...... just curious, as I DID read a safer way where the guy wired a switch inside of the Jack Panel in the back/driver side. It SUCKS when you 'have to go' to have to get up to the front, turn on the key, etc.! OH, ...yeah, it sucks even more when you get up in a snow storm from sleep and have to crawl out the front cuz the window decided not to work that day! hahaha.

Sorry for rambling, just curious...did I miss what you're doing there, other than tucking it all away?

Terrys87

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Hello Chef, It only works with the key on. The PO has it grounded to get it to work the way that it should. I would like to remove this wire, but then it wont work.

If I am looking at schematic right??, I am not understanding why it works with this wire grounding out the Blue/Red wire. I want to get it to the way it should be. No Ground wire.

I understand the very basics of electricity, but that is about it. I want to get it to how the factory had it, not rigged the way it is.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

I'm not elec. guru, BY ANY MEANS, lol. However, I would guess that the wire in question( blue-red) is supposed to be ground somewhere near further into the harness(maybe under the dash?) and it snapped, so he figured that out and grounded it where you see now. If it works, why not solder a longer piece in there so you have more play?(Seen you saying that wire made things a bit "SHORT", right?)

Dutchbelly

I am not an electrical Guru. So I can't help you. I am however married to a beautiful woman who also happens to be a licensed electrician. I showed her this thread, and she's saying the only reason she can think of for the function of the window to be interrupted by that non-factory ground being removed is if the previous owner put the ground in there to bypass one of the devices that has stopped functioning. So one of the switches in the system isn't working properly, and the PO threw the ground wire in there to bypass that switch in order for the window to keep working. If this theory is correct, and you really wanted to bring it back to factory, you'd have to either trace out the ground to find out which device it's serving as a "jumper" for, or remove the ground and ohm out the circuit till you found the device that no longer works. Hope this helps, and once again, this isn't my expertise, it's my wife's. Another guy you might want to ask would be Irab88. That guy really seems to understand the electrical systems in these trucks.'

Edit: The ground could be bypassing more than one component. It would probably be bypassing everything in the circuit past that button. Any of the devices being bypassed could be the broken one. Not sure if this helps but here's a cutout of the diagram from the FSM for an '88.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Wow Dutch!! You are a lucky guy, to have a electrician as a wife. Thats got to make life alot easier. I really appreciate her looking at the diagram.

The window lock switch does work, but I can operate the window with the tailgate down, so I knew there was something that wasnt right. I actually like it as that it makes working on the inside of the hatch alot easier with the tailgate down. I havent tried raising it with the top off.

Now that I know that it is just by passing some relays or something, I feel alot better about it. I understand the basics of electricity and that can get over my head quick. I am just going to leave it and make the ground a permanent hook up.

I am sure I understand now what is going on. The ground wire is bypassing the Door Lock Detection switch is why I can open the tailgate with the glass up or down,and I about would bet that the window would go up or down with the top off as the Cover/Top off switch is bypassed too. Which is fine with me. I will just use the Windlow Lock switch with the top off. There are to many safetys built into this, but I understand why Toyota did it for liablity reasons.

Once I got the ground reconnected from my big tug on it, it works greaattt.

Thanks for having your wife to look at this and tell her I said a BIG THANKS for her help.

92 TOY

wish I could help, but I'm mostly an unplug, clean, replace, re-plug kinda guy

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Hey, ..... not sure if I misunderstood something there, .... but just so you know, the "back door" WILL NEVER UNLOCK EVEN (when things are original in wiring and working of course, lol), because the window is still in the shell's guides for much of the way. If you tried to open the tailgate when the window is partially up, it could just shatter it. Also, they probably didn't want lil bittles crawling back there and opening the tailgate while rolling down the road, lol. The window shouldn't go up or down either, of course, when the window is open, and when you start rolling it up, the tailgate automatically drops the lock.

Anyway, I'm sure that's what you meant, just making sure you knew that the tailgate should NEVER unlock if the window is EVEN SLIGHTLY open. What I do, for the sake of getting ride of that IRRITATING light "Back Door" in the cluster is 'Roll my window slightly up(1/16") till the light goes out and then disconnect the wire and remove the roof.

I've been DYING to pull the top....but I still haven't got an alarm and THIS IS L.A.! lol.... And also, I'm REALLY enjoying the A/C, like today, while sitting in traffic on the 405Fwy for WAY TOO LONG to go 24miles! lol. LOVING the 'CHILL'!

I ALWAYS remove the top WHEN I GET to the campground, before wheeling, exploring, etc. I lock it to a tree, usually, through one of the bolt holes, hahaha. Usually someone is up there with their family and will watch the stuff while I take off into the woods, lol....but still, right? lol.

Sorry for rambling, hahaha.... I hope you have no issues arise. So, one more time....the window doesn't go up or down without the key in the rear or ignition, right?

Dutchbelly

Can you still open the tailgate this way? I always forget to hit the lock on the tailgate when the top is off, and then the stupid back door light bothers me while driving around, so maybe I should start doing what you've described.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Yep, you can. The "roll it up A 16th OF AN INCH" trick is just enough to trigger the light, and most often it WILL drop the lock, ...but once the top is off, granting the window isn't up to where it's coming out of the seal, lol... it will open, mine always has. Once I've unplugged it, I never could then get the light to go off, lol(no power to the motor). I seem to remember someone telling me how to stop that, .....and it didn't work for me, lol. So I just do what I described. Remember, once you remove the back shell bolts by the tailgate, there is no more ground, regardless of the thing being still connected, it will NOT roll down, up, etc., as I remember.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Hello Chef..I tried the quote thing and sometimes I can figure it out, sometimes not. Earlier you asked about the key working in the back gate latch. I put the original key switch in and my orginal key is so worn, I am going to have a lock smith to make one and see if it will work then.

Living in LA is probably not a good thing with your top off. Thats to bad. There are still alot of people that leave their keys in their cars here. I know when I lived in San Diego, I had some adjusting to do. Alway locking the car up got old. It is still safe here, but getting into the bigger towns, it is starting to change.

I come home from work the other day and had left my lights on when I went into the house. I seen some movement by my window. The neighbor was just shutting them off for me.

Hello Dutchbelly.. I was able to get that light out by taking the tab on switch below and put it over the dowel, so I never have to deal with that Rear Door Ajar. I am also thinking that ground wire bypasses that switch too. My window will still go up with the top off. I just use my center switch to avoid raising it, and since I am the one who drives it mostly, Im not worried about raising it with the top off and with the tailgate down.

Earlier in my thread, we were talking about how our water temp guages jump from cold to just under half, I am guessing you have the rear heater in between the fron seats. I found some information on it the other day, and as best as I can figure, the rear heater somehow plays a part in that.

Also from what I can tell is there is a Dual Stage Thermostat that is for these and if you are having problems with your temp guage jumping around quite a bit it solve this. I think I have the part number #90916-03070. I havent looked into this just yet, but thought I would give a little info that I have found so far.

Switch I was talking about earlier.

Dutchbelly

You're a good man, Terry. I do indeed have a rear heater, and it's the only heater that blows hot (and I mean burn your hand hot) in my truck. I'll have to look for a dual stage thermostat, and I really appreciate the heads up, because I've never trusted my heater gauge. It's never seemed like it's made sense. It stays cold and then under a minute of the truck running it jumps up to half way and never moves away from it. I know the truck isn't that warm that quickly.

Also, thanks for clarifying Chef, I'm going to have to do this 1/16" trick from now on. It really annoys me having any dash lights on that shouldn't be. I always end up pulling over, and walking back and locking the tailgate.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Dutch..your welcome. I am still figuring it out myself. It is something I am going to look into when I go to winterize my runner this winter.

Terrys87

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It been to hot to really do anything and was busy this weekend. But I did make it out to the rustbucket and got the Radiator Support panel off of it.

My 86 parts truck needs it, if I can get a title for it, I have just about everthing for it. I still have about 6 months on my current project. I am stripping and putting parts up. The PO is trying to get a lost title for me as he is the one who had it. I would have a lot less into it. Its blue on blue and one I would rather have.

If not, the panel is something that often gets overlooked when stripping a truck and the salvage wants a fortune for one.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Edited: My 2nd post in this build thread has alot more info on this repair if you are intrested.

While I was working on parts and stripping the 87, I also got the fuel tank. I have this in my thread when I first started this build and this is another tank that will go into the 86. I was asked last week on a PM about doing some tank cleaning and sealing. So I wanted to add a few things to it.

Found some cleaning steps on the net as the tank in this build was really rusty. It had a deep rust in it. I used the steps on the net I found and have about $20 into this tank and it came clean. Alot better then $350 when I paid $500 for the truck. I have probably 5000 trouble free miles on it now. I do alot of driving.

I also found a new pump off of ebay for $25 plus about $7 for shipping. I have used these pumps twice and actually bought another when about 2 months ago my flat bed was acting up. Thought it was the orginal fuel pump at the time, but was actually a loose fuel injector connection, so I didnt need it. But wanted to post pics of the ebay one.

I have used these twice and never any problems. It comes with everything that a factory or parts store comes with. So $20 for cleaning and $35ish for fuel pump. A parts store will run about $150 for a fuel pump. $200 for a tank off of ebay.

I did bust the screws that hold the fuel level float and 1 that busted that holds the fuel pump, but I dont mess with tanks in the summer. The fumes are what are dangerous. I will wait til winter to get the busted screws out. I wont need it for a while anyways.

I have some fuel experience. An empty tank that has been empty for 20 years is dangerous. Just putting that out for safety. If at all possible work in the cold with tanks.

Cleanest used tank I have seen. Will still coat just to keep it from rusting.


This "J" line like to get clogged. Check all of them, but most likely this one will be clogged.


New $25 dollar fuel pump.


Red Kote

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Wow, very informative.... great work, Terry!

jason in tn

Just checking in on ya Terry, hope all is well.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Hello Jason.. Im still alive and kicking. I did go out floating and fishing and got sunburned real good, and then it has been to hot to do anything around here.

I have been getting the shed straightened out and it is DONE!! Finally. Got some parts cleaned up and had a guy ask me about the EGR, so I took one I found and used it to update my thread on cleaning and what to look for. I updated quite a few different things on my thread.

I have been trying to get some good info about these trucks on my thread. I remember when I was trying to find fixes on here and would have to dig around. If you check out my first post, I have a little index there that will hopefully save you some time on where to find things I did.

Been trying to get a Extened Cab rear view mirror holder, which has all of the slots for the electrical cut outs, but none of the electrical runs in them converted into a mirror/light assembly.

The mirror usually get broke out of the plastic holder and if I can get the dummy holder to work with the electrical runs in them, I think it would be a great fix. Thing has such small riviets. It would be a great fix if I can get it to work. Also would work on a 4Runner.

I had an old 2 speed tranny from when I had replaced in a guys truck I tried to experiment with on getting it apart. My snap rings wouldnt work on getting the clips off.

I have looked on here and about 5th gear whining on these trucks. I guess it is luck of the draw about you getting one that is quite. I have been looking into replacing the "Input Shaft bearing" ( I think that it is what it is called) . Been getting mixed reviews on looking it up about it so thought I would give it try. It turned out to be a complete failure for me. I stripped the tranny and left the drain plug in it, which I meant to take out when I got to the scrap shop with it, to keep from geting oil all over the truck.

Speaking of scrap metal. I couldnt believe what was getting scrapped. No Toyotas, but I really thought "Cash for Clunkers" was going on again.

I plan on getting back on the 88 again real soon. Wife and kids like it with the top off and running around in it so I was out numbered and lost it for a while.

jason in tn

Hey man glad to hear all's good with you, sorry to hear about the sun burn but hope ya had a good time fishing, sounds like your staying busy as usual.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Wow, thatsalotta stuff's going on, Terry! Way to tackle it, and sorry bout the burn, .... CRAZY painful showers ahead, eh? lol. Oh, and watch out for those infamous "HEY BUDDY!" slaps on the back, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK lol.

Great to hear yer still at it!