e-locker wiring redux and repairing breather

[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.