FJ40 I call Shipwreck

[silver_bullet]

If you have room and desire for it, keep everything you might find use for... otherwise clean house! that is why I upgraded scanners quite a while ago... the police in this area are using the higher bands to have more secure networks against the lurkers.....

[Russell]

When I was in high school I had a friend whose dad had a wrecker he had a scanner. He would keep up with the rotation if he was due for one he would go put his boots on and get ready for the phone to ring if a crash came across the scanner. Towing and recovery is pretty fun, at least in the country not sure I would like it in the city.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Excitement today
rather then do anything fun, I got to find a short


not there
nor in here


how do I get a 50% step-down voltage to the pump relay?


in the end, I have no idea - it runs again. I'll spend some quality time on rewrapping the wires...


though with that said, I got to meet another cool neighbor that will join us on our next wheeling adventures...

[silver_bullet]

looks like you could use some help from resident bangshift crewchiefs and avionics techs...

[SuperBuickGuy]

So forget everything I just diagnosed.

The short is still there, I'm 90% sure it's in the space where the harness goes through the firewall - but I think the only way to find/fix is going to be pull the harness, de-shroud the loom and find out what the hell. I put insulation around the firewall entry and the short is back, stronger then ever. The only other thing I did with that last night was tighten the clamp on the distributor.... so somewhere in that 6" is the problem... very frustrating.

[TheSilverBuick]

The problem is you used different color wires, they should all be red or yellow

I've been fortunate in never having a long standing short. Is it a short or a break? From my arm chair, I've heard of many problems with through firewall connectors, I'd check there for either corrosion or loose pin. The real problem with troubleshooting electrical issues, is it rare can be done over the internet on a custom install =/

[SuperBuickGuy]

there's not a connector - but I've tested all the wires to the firewall and from the starter to the firewall entry point.... mostly that's just me whining at the boatload of work it's going to take to solve the issue....Did I mention, also, that my gas gauge doesn't work again and I smelled fuel when I was under the vehicle? this is why I don't do imports.

what kills me is why I am blowing a fuse on the wire from the starter, and at the fuse box on the firewall.... opposite sides of the truck, and it should be impossible for both to blow on the same short (meaning there's probably more then one short - which adds infinity to the number of ways this problem could be occurring)

[DanStokes]

I'm just wading into the wiring on the Volvo and have all fingers and toes crossed that it goes well. I DO have a fallback - someone I can call in if it all goes to pot. Hope I won't need that. I do home run grounds and also B+ power so there is a main connector right off the battery for stuff needing big power (MSD, injection computer, etc.) so I'm hoping that saves me some headaches. Neanderthal wiring.

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

worst part is I could by-pass the computer running the pump however, with the short where it is - I can't keep fuses on the computer to make it go... ah well, it could be worse.... a carb.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I take back all the nice things I said about Howell's EFI, pictures at 11

[SuperBuickGuy]

A company spends all that money, in marketing, research, product support ... and throws it all away with poor quality products
I wasn't going to call out Howell EFI, but this is ridiculous.

To remind. The '40 died at a stop light and wouldn't restart. It was blowing the main fuse for the computer. After 4 hours of diagnosis, I thought I found the issue and fixed it - no, I just spent needless money. I presumed that Howell had done a good job - that was a mistake on my part.

Electrical tape is a wonderful, TEMPORARY wire cover. While it was covered by the loom, the problem was when they soldered the joints, they didn't trim the flash (the pointy ends of the wires) nor did they crimp them flat.... best practice is heat-shrink tubing... which it has now.


Mind you, I wouldn't be so irritated if I'd not already bought a harness at UPullIt that I simply needed to do what I did today to the Howell harness - that is, trim, solder and cover with heat shrink. Secondary to the above issues is they didn't trim the ends of the plastic so it could rub its way through the wire.... oh yeah, the irritation... $400 I spent on their crappy work.

notice the nice, sharp edges and the forced 90 degree bends that bent against the loom cover?


that ball in the middle, had nice ends sticking out - that's what shorted and why when I originally loosened the harness, everything worked again


why not heat shrink? because everyone loves to look at electrical tape falling off?


I feel better about my soldering too


What's really special is the short wires that are soldered on both ends.... black wire must be hard to come by?


5 solder joints, one wire.... no heat shrink....


note the electrical tape coming off a main power wire? this was the short


if only it had looked this good before I re-did it


I re-ran the wires a bit


and finally got around to the 2nd defrost hose


drilling hole




believe it or not, I think I'm going to leave it like this.... no pinch or rub possible


I still need to loom the rest of the wires and find out why the gauge isn't working (again)

my table will get cleaner this week...


my advice on the looming/modifying - do it yourself now or fix it yourself later.

[65RHDEER]

That is very poor on the part of Howell EFI, now when someone does a search on the internet this post may save them some grief.

You wouldn't think you'd be chasing a fault like that.

[DanStokes]

All I can say is - totally unacceptable. Hope the harnesses on the Volvo are better (not Howell).

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

And for the record, I sent them an email on Sunday.... so far, crickets.

[SuperBuickGuy]

and I found the last problem.... the wiring into the injectors is funky.... that answers a whole load of questions I had