PaulR

I've searched high and low on this forum and can't seem to come up with a solution to my problem. My electrical skills are not great.

Heres the background. I picked up a 95 4runner for VERY cheap because there was VERY little of it that wasn't rusty. The tailgate had taken the worst of it and the bottom 1/4 had pretty much rusted right off. you could see the back of the metal access panel from the outside of the truck.

So I found a replacement. Only the new one is a tire carrier style and my old one was not.

I put in the new one and quickly discovered that there is an extra wire coming from my truck for what I found out later to be for the license plate light. On the other style of tailgate, that wire runs along the other side of the truck. I have yet to find the tailgate end of that wire so for the time being it is disconnected.

As soon as I got everything wired up and ready to go, I tried the key in the gate and nothing happened. I tried the front switch and it fired to life and lifted the window up into place, only to never move for me again.

Now here's where it gets different from everybody else's issue (I think). The rear window relay doesn't click when I try the key in the back. But it DOES click when I have the key in the ignition. NOT when I try to open the window though.

But not just once. It just clicks non stop. Every 5 - 10 seconds the stupid thing goes off without me doing anything. So I assume I need a new relay and find one for 20 bucks off craigslist. It does the exact same thing. So I go find another one at a junk yard. It does the exact same thing. So now I've got a stock pile of rear window relays and I'm no where closer to my finished goal.


The rear wiper is seized, so I've disconnected the actual wiper from the motor. I understand that this could be an issue but don't know how to bypass it.
My reverse lights are also not working.
The motor DOES work. I have connected it to an extra battery to get it up and down for working back there.


I have read through the 4crawler cheap tricks rear window page and understand that I can put in a DPDT switch and bypass the relay, but I would like to try to make it work before I resort to that.

Any insight would be great.
Thanks!

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

Welcome to YT!

Hmmmm....well not sure if a different key will work in a different rear door? Meaning, I can't unlock the doors on my buddies 84 SA truck but the key will go in and turn just fine. Perhaps swap out the tumbler from the original door to this other door thats now installed?

Your reverse lights work off a switch on the tranny so take a look at that.

Also, theres a little micro switch in the drivers side latch on the tailgate. Try banging on that. Sometimes it gets "outta place".

chuntr

I would look up the pinouts on the wiring harnesses for the tailgate between your year and the donor vehicle. my bet is that some of the wires are the same (like the one to roll the window up) but others are different. also, there are so many safety switches back there for the rear-wiper and what not that if one of them is tripped wrong it can lock the window out of working all together.

if it's ticking on it's own when you've got the key in, something is miswired or shorted which is why I suspect the harness is different. the wiring layout to switch current direction to the window motor is called an "H bridge", and if it's wired wrong it can cause shorts. check for blown fuses. you may be firing the relay but the relay is just shorting +12 to ground when it's closed.

all this stuff is easy enough to bypass. you can duplicate the DPDT setup above using relays easily enough, and that's basically what the stock setup does. I hooked mine up to a small wireless receiver so I can activate the rear window with a key fob. I've had to bypass the stock relays all together though cause I fried the relay board.

PaulR

Thanks so much for the insight guys.
I'll try to make this work this weekend and will update with my results afterwards.