e-locker wiring redux and repairing breather

[Bob98SR5]

Ok, I may look dumb but at least I have some common sense!

So to start off the three day weekend, I decided to finish the other wiring project. Back in 2013-ish, my time was completely occupied by this little 1976 BMW 2002 and so the 4runner sat in the sun in my apartment complex parking lot. The odd thing though was that while the battery was new, the 4runner had a parasitic leak. I tried everything under the sun to find it and eventually after much frustration, I tore out every bit of aftermarket wiring I had and started all over. It was a bitch of a task which included resoldering some connections and grounding everything again, but the leak was gone.

So fast forward to tonight: nervously I grabbed my socket set and removed the rear driver's side seat to see if I had completely removed the e-locker harness that I painstakingly wired and soldered together. I pulled the carpet back...and lo and behold I had saved my wiring harness! I tucked all that wiring (sans the aftermarket e-locker switch which I lost) under the seat.

I then lowered and removed the spare tire and started playing auto mechanic Twister to clip off the dual harnesses into the locker unit. All looked fine until I pulled the wiring through. It looks like either I forgot to secure the harness (the side closest to the locker) to the mount or the nut and bolt came off at some point. The end result is this almost melted in half breather tube. It looks like the blown up T1000's from Terminator 2 when Arnold rode the big factory cog up and shot his M72 grenade launcher. Yeah you remember the scene.

Anyways, questions for you guys who extended your breather tubes: how did you do it, what did you use to extend it, and did you cut off the check valve thing at the end to do it? Oh, where did you route it to?

So to be 100% sure about how and what wire colors I wire to the OEM harness, I unravelled ALL that black tape just to make sure I used the same color throughout for each wire as I have a penchant to sometimes cobble wires of different color. But not this time as I remembered that I spent way too much money buying the wires for this project. But like I said, I had to verify nonetheless. Not to mention I used the color RED for two wires that were soldered to two different color OEM wires. Not a good move, but I recall I ran out of wire of a different color and I had to make sure these two wires were connected to.

Which leads me to this and my contribution to this thread: a wiring template with clear, easy to understand pics. Hope someone gets some use out of it.

So anyways, tomorrow's going to be an interesting day. For starters, I've decided to wire in the OEM ECU and OEM Diff locker switch I acquired on eBay many moons ago. If it doesn't work, I'll install the CJK Off Road harness with a safety switch.

Anyways if anyone has advice on repairing the breather tube, I'm all ears.

[Bob98SR5]

Pics attached of melted breather tube

[Bob98SR5]

Well it seems I'm talking to myself lol.

So I spent a good hour combined removing all the remaining electrical tape with some Goo Gone and then finished it off with some Hoppe's gun cleaning fluid. That stuff does wonders getting off a lot of stuff esp grime on the metal brackets. Wires cleaned, I took one more look at my wire colors to the stock wires (and pin assignments) and one pass at re-wrapping the wires again w/ electrical tape. I'll reinforce some section where there's a lot of soldered wire, but for now I consider the harness part 95% complete.

One thing I wanted to do was to verify the harness plug part numbers after I cleaned the housings for both. When I got to my desk I examined something that I completely overlooked and/or ignored: the white/black wire on the turn signal harness looked like it got stretched and the wire was exposed. So exposed in fact that it was corroded and holding on by a few wire threads. So after about 1 - 2 hours searching the internet for a how to, I got the courage to do it myself. Now I tell ya, I was nervous about breaking those fine little plastic parts but after doing so, it's not that bad.

Through my research I found a very awesome little company named Ballenger Motorsports (bmotorsports.com) that sells the little wire terminals, the rubber plugs, and even the entire plug w/ pigtails for much cheaper than the dealership would charge. For example one of those little silver wire terminals that goes inside the harness plug on just about every online Toyota shop runs about $7.25 ish. This site is about $0.29 per. Yeah, that's not a typo.

Anyways it's gonna be another weekend or so before the locker w/ the stock ECU and switch are operational. And yes, the likelihood of using it within my life time will probably be once or twice :)

Oh one more thing re: breather tube. Since I had to cut off the burnt ends anyways, I just looked at the parts and how its constructed . Literally its a 1/4" plastic tube sheathed in rubber foam type materials. Go to HD, Lowes, or Ace and I'm sure you'll get something like it.

[Seanz0rz]

Good find on those terminals!

What melted your breather? Did it fall on the exhaust? I have mine tucked up to the driver's side spring/shock mount, and have had no problems.

Also, unrelated but I saw you post at some point but cannot find it that your power steering is leaking. I used ATP205 https://www.amazon.com/ATP-AT-205-Re-Seal-Stops-Bottle/dp/B000NVW1LM and it has stopped the leak in my 4Runner.

[Bob98SR5]

Good find on those terminals!

What melted your breather? Did it fall on the exhaust? I have mine tucked up to the driver's side spring/shock mount, and have had no problems.

Also, unrelated but I saw you post at some point but cannot find it that your power steering is leaking. I used ATP205 https://www.amazon.com/ATP-AT-205-Re-Seal-Stops-Bottle/dp/B000NVW1LM and it has stopped the leak in my 4Runner.

Yup, it was leaning against the exhaust at some point. I'm going to have to find some replacement hose, the plastic inner one. Good idea on running it up the shock mount.

Oh thanks re: P/S leak product. I'm still going to run the dye test since I bought all that stuff, but will go with your suggestion. I don't want to wrench on that system since I just paid for that work (unless it's something severe).

[Seanz0rz]

My rack is leaking at each end, this has at the very least slowed it down to be unnoticeable, if not stopped it all together. A bunch of LC guys swear by it.

Should I send you some tubing? lol!

[YotaFun]

Bob, I try to check the site every day, you are not alone! lol

For the breather, when I had it, I plumbed it with my extended diff breather that runs up to the gas door.
I just sip tied them together.

As for the wires, mine fell on the exhaust when I first did the frame swap but somehow survived enough to transfer over and still work.
I'd be inclined to redo all the wiring I have in the brown 4Runner if I was keeping, but now I just don't care so much.

I have the FSM in book form, I am sure you have it online, if not I can dig it out and get some pictures for you for the locker.
I did my set up the same way using the factory ECU and button, I never got around to wiring in the dash light though.

If you need anything additional just give me a heads up.

And again, great find on the terminals!

[Bob98SR5]

Sean,

I bought that p/s stuff last night via Amazon. Tomorrow I plan to put that dye in and see what's up. Hopefully its a little seal leak and nothing serious! Same w/ the oil leak too.

Tubing: I'll let you know, thanks!

Also I do have the FSM book as well. I have a good understanding of the wiring now, but I'm waiting for those terminals so I can wire up the OEM switch per FSM manual as I don't want to tap the wire from the harness behind the instrument cluster.

[4x4mike]

I check the site nearly everyday but was out of town for a 4 day weekend. Coming home to all this tech is awesome.

As for the breather tube, I never extended mine. IIRC it pointed straight up like a little antenna and the wires mounted to a short metal arm. All of this occurred on the driver side of the driveshaft while the exhaust is on the other side of the vehicle. If I were you I'd just cut out the bad part and stick the cap back on. If you've got some tube hiding out in the garage maybe slip a length over it and call it good.

I tapped the RR Diff lock light in the cluster with no problem. It was the last step in my e-locker install and was quite easy. There is a guy from Sacramento on t4R.org who just did a write up and video with Timmy the Toolman on YT that followed my instructions. He bought the special little spade connectors. I used no connector but rather tinned the end of the wire and stuck it in the contact. It was a great hold and I never had a problem with it.

I may have given my e-locker binder to the new owner of the 3rd gen but let me know if you need info. I believe I took pictures of vital pages but also have a lot of pictures from that work.

[Seanz0rz]

I think I might still have some of the connectors, I will look.

[Bob98SR5]

Finally got a 30 min window to do some work on the 4Runner today. Quickest task I could complete in that time was to repair the back up light harness / transfer case harness (the small one). While I bought all the terminal parts, the terminal key tools, etc, I decided that it'd be faster to just solder up the harness w/ the pigtail (wires are about a foot long---overkill but appreciated). I've attached the part number w/ price and pictures of my fantastically beautiful soldering job lol. Part number is on the harness too. Vendor is https://www.bmotorsports.com/. This is a lot cheaper than buying a new harness.

[Bob98SR5]

Ok more obscure stuff from yours truly:

So after stuffing in the new replacement Air Lift bag on the left rear, I decided to use the remaining minutes of my evening to answer my own little question about the e-locker hose size. So the other night I routed my re-wrapped harness (a thing of beauty I might add) into and outside towards the e-locker. I decided to measure the semi-rigid hose, but then I said "Oh what the hell" and decided to pull out the semi-rigid hose. Well the bottom hose (the part that mates to the rubber hose sticking out of the e-locker) just pulled right out, but it didn't feel like there was much resistance say like if it were barbed...I had a bit of an Austin Powers epiphany:

So I have read 2-3 threads and people complaining about water getting into their e-lockers and ruining them and wondering how that happened. And then the plethora of threads on T4R of joining the e-locker hose with the rear differential hoses (still find that intriguing). Anyways, so I decided to unwrap the electrical tape (or whatever it is) that joined the protective tubing to see if there were barbs or was it one long ass hose.

Wellllll turns out gents that it's like 3 sections of semi-rigid hoses that DO NOT have any barbs adjoining them. They are literally butted together and then the protective sleeve is taped around it. So truly it would fail any pressure or vacuum test.

So having everything pulled out and unwound now, here's the specs on the semi-rigid e-locker hose:

OD = 5/32"
ID = 3/32"

Now back to the Airlift hose. Since it was just there, I decided to just see if the sem-rigid hose would fit inside the AL hose and sure enough it was a perfect fit. So you see, the protective sleeve that Toyota uses to adjoin the 5/32" OD semi-rigid hose is NOT a tight fit, but a loose one. Why the heck did they do that???

So my thought is this: being the cheap Korean guy that I am, if I can find a barbed 5/32" breather device, I can plug it into this Air Lift hose, route it somewhere higher, and call it a (cheap) day. Even if I have to buy 5/32" trans or fuel line hose, it'll still be better in my opinion than using ID 3/8", OD 1/2" hose like the Type R Rear differential breather tube hose mod uses as the smaller more flexible tubing will be easier to route and to secure.

Meaning you can still keep your doctor...oh I mean: you can still use the stock Toyota breather just by snipping say a 2-3" piece of the stock e-locker breather tubing at the very end and use the stock breather device in conjunction w/ whatever 5/32 OD tubing you choose to use

What do you think, gents?

[Bob98SR5]

No dice on finding a barbed 5/32" breather device. So I'm just going to use the excess Air Lift hose I got recently and ran it up to the gas cap area with no plug.

On another note, I also called two dealerships to see if they sell the original cap that comes with the stock wire harness. No luck on that. Anyone who isn't using theirs, please let me know as I'd like to buy it from you.

[Bob98SR5]

So I got the new plug soldered in, taped up, and both plugs are now installed into the e-locker actuator. I also used a combination of the old 5/32" hose and the Air Lift hose into the actuator's rubber breather fitting (that spiral looking thing---oddly enough mine was significantly chopped off for some odd reason). I ran the Air Lift hose along the Type R Rear Differential breather hose to the gas nozzle and to the left of the gas cap as the rear diff breather hose occupies the right side. Both hoses are now zip tied together for easy identification.

Now onto the biggest/littlest news today. The 4Runner parts god must be smiling down on me tonight: I have this "thing" where prior to starting something big, I must clean the workspace as much as possible, reorganize all the tools back to where they live, and THEN begin the work. Anyone else as wasteful time wise as me before starting a job? :)

Anyways I had some time to clean up the garage a bit more from last night's e-locker re-wiring job and lo and behold I found that friggin' little breather cap! I held it up like Gollum did when he found Precious and told my wife who unenthusiastically said "Uh huh" and went back to watching Netflix. So I found a little section of the stock 5/32" hose I saved in a baggie (see, you should always save your OEM parts no matter what!), cleaned up everything w/ brake clean, and lovingly fitted the 5/32" hose to the AL hose, fitted the breather cap to the 5/32" OEM hose, and electrical taped the whole thing together. It fits quite nicely in the gas nozzle area and definitely doesn't get in the way of the gas cap.

Though small, what a win. The parts dealers do NOT sell this little piece.

So now that I have it back, let's talk about what to do if you lose this little breather cap: All it is is a very pliable, soft rubber cap with a 5/32" ID entry hole, but it reduces to something smaller the rest of the way. And at the top/tip of the cap it has two slits in it to allow air out, but prevent the hose and tube from ingesting dirt, dust, etc. I imagine the next time I have such a mini parts crisis over this little cap, I'll just find some cap made of similar material and then slit the top like an X in it.

This is a helluva lot easier to run this small diameter tubing (AL hose is 1/4" ID) than to run some alternate hose extensions of much thicker material than I've seen people create, which in my opinion is overkill.

[Bob98SR5]

And yes I cleaned up the nasty inner door and get to the inner gas boot later. Ken would give me a pat on the back if he were here :)

...and at this rate, I'll finish all of this work by February 2021 lol.

[paddlenbike]

And yes I cleaned up the nasty inner door and get to the inner gas boot later. Ken would give me a pat on the back if he were here :)



Oh how having a child changes things. My poor 4Runner drives 32 miles a day on pavement and gets parked in the ghetto at work where it gets pee'd on and leaf blowers duel each other to ensure parked cars are covered in dust. Needless to say you wouldn't be impressed with the cleanliness. That said, it gets me to work reliably every day and never misses a beat. I still love driving it.

Progress is looking good Bob!

[Bob98SR5]

Oh have some compassion for the homeless! They need to pee somewhere! :)

Ken even on your 4Runner's dirtiest day, you could still eat off of the engine side of your skid plate.

[Seanz0rz]

... it gets pee'd on...

Sorry Ken, but I really had to go!

[Bob98SR5]

Progress is looking good Bob!

Some more progress late last night. Don’t you love it when you have to spend a disproportionate amount of money to complete a small task? I wanted to wire my OEM elocker switch as Toyota does so I decided to buy those pin terminals, which required a new crimper, the terminals, plus shipping. The pins I recall were less than a buck while the crimper was about $20 and the terminals (and the e-locker 2 wire pig tails) were about the same. Anyways, I'm glad I bought that stuff because I've always wanted to learn how to make and harnesses.

Thank god for YouTube because crimping these terminals wasn’t as intuitive as I thought. Most difficult was finding vids that detail how to remove the retaining clip. This one was a compression fit whereas others have a very obvious, dedicated retaining clip. It took a few sacrificial terminals to practice on before I got it right and even then my crimper’s smallest crimper teeth was a wee bit bit. Nothing a very small flathead screwdriver and a couple taps of a hammer to fully crimp down the tabs onto the wire and onto the wire sheathing.

As you can see in the pics the two new wires were added, I extended out the green wire, and added two mini-ATM fuse taps to two of the wires.

Next up is actually soldering the ECU (cut) pigtailed wires to my harness wires. This should be simple enough.

[Bob98SR5]

More work yesterday and today with much frustration. I checked and rechecked the wiring and caught one error which I tested before soldering. The locker wouldn't engage. So I resoldered all wires that were male/female connectors, but still no engagement. I rechecked the wiring a third time and everything was fine including the plugs at the locker. I then bolted in the locker ECU in the driver's side wheel well and decided to move onto the priority items, re-doing the valve cover and the power steering lines.

Back to the locker wiring: looking through my FSM and other online diagrams, I couldn't find one that matched the 5 speed wiring. So being the electrical noob that I am (well I'm not *that* bad, but not an expert), I looked at the diagram Sean sent me and slowly figured things out. Looking at the back of the instrument cluster, things clicked. So really it was simple as finding where the RR DIFF light was on the dash, pulling out the bulb behind it, shining a flashlight through it to verify the location, and then looking at the wiring path on the back of the cluster. One wire path on the right runs to a ground point while the other just to the left goes all the way up to the female harness. Pin #8 is the one you want to add a terminal pin #82998-24180...I think. I'll try and see if it works.

Questions for troubleshooting purposes:

- When you start your vehicle, does your RR Diff light on the dash (not the switch) flash momentarily? Mine does not
- When your vehicle is NOT running, but on ON (accessory mode) but in 4WD, can you engage the locker? Does the RR DIFF dash light flash?

I went overkill for tech posterity's sake. See the attached pics. Note: my vehicle is a 98 4Runner w/ ABS but not pre-wired for an e-locker.


EDIT: Originally I misidentified the wire as wire #6. It should be wire #8 on the side that has 7 slots. I'll add pics once I confirm it works.

[4x4mike]

I used factory ecu, switch and I tapped the dash. My RR DIFF light never blinked like factory but it could have been because I didn't connect every wire the ECU had coming out of it. I would push the button, no light, but when I heard the e locker engage the light would illuminate simultaneously. I don't remember if it would engage if the key was in the accessory mode but I guess it depends on where you're getting your power.

Did you try the screwdriver method to get the locker turned over?

[Bob98SR5]

Mike,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to check the FSM for the troubleshooting procedure, but I believe that light should momentarily blink on like the ABS light does when you first fire up the engine.

Screwdriver method: not yet, but probably won't do it as I've moved on from the locker work. Valve cover is off now so doing that next. I'll revisit the locker work after I get the power steering lines on.

To think, I thought the locker was going to be the easiest part!

[YotaFun]

Bob,

Sorry I have been MIA from the Internets, I just went out and jumped in my 00' Limited that is factory equipped.
The RR DIFF LOCK light does illuminate for a few seconds to indicate the module has done a self test.

When pressing the button to engage, when it is in the process if the locker has not lock it will flash on the dash till it does lock.

I did not check to see if I can get engagement to work with key on engine off, I will try to get in there tomorrow and do such for you.

What is your source of power for the module?

[Bob98SR5]

Avi,

Thanks again for the reply and the response on the RR DIFF light illuminating a few seconds. I'm still waiting for that single tiny terminal pin (the most expensive terminal per dollar I've ever paid!) from Conicelli Toyota along w/ the cam plugs. Once I wire that terminal up, I'll have an idea if I wired things correctly or not. Might have to follow those tedious procedures to test the ECU. I hope not!

Power source: I tapped the lower driver's side panel fuse box according to this diagram:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachments/3rd-gen-t4rs/302540d1529962275-elocker-oem-wiring-98_t4r_e-locker_retrofit_wiring_diagram-2.pdf

It appears that the ECU is getting its power from the 10A Fuse tap terminal (top right of diagram) that runs along the black/yellow wire, which then runs down to the male harness terminal pin #5.

[Bob98SR5]

Well this is the only thing that didn't go according to plan. When I fired up the 4Runner today after doing the p/s line work and the engine work, I got a check engine light. So I only drove a few blocks before getting the heebs and headed back to the garage. I completed the burping of the p/s lines and system and went on another drive. But before I did that, I unhooked the power fuse tap lines that was powering the locker ECU. No more check engine light. Also my gauge cluster lights are half lit on either ends. WTF. I think either I must've not plugged in the harnesses perfectly or the bulbs aren't screwed in tight. Time to fix it now.

EDIT: I think I mucked up the brown harness wires or something like that. The left side works now, but I don't know why. I replugged it back the left side white harness (left to right, it's white, blue, and brown) and now the white works. I'm going to check the bulbs if I have time tonight to see maybe it's a bulb issue. But my feeling is either I handled the brown harness too much, screwed up those conductor lines somehow, or maybe there's a weird ground that I accidentally mucked up.

Anyone had this same problem?

[YotaFun]

Double check your ground there.
I have yanked on the harness pretty good and haven't had ill results.
I tried to wire the Diff light on my brown truck through the cluster but ended up just putting a separate light on the dash.

I am trying to remember the write up I saw where I think an extra ground had to be added but I am not sure.

[Seanz0rz]

I'll pull my IP tomorrow and show where I tapped for the light.