deathbeaver

J
So my dash lights are super dim with just the running lights on turn the headlights on and it goes even more dimmer.... also my temp gauge reads normal with no lights on I turn my headlights on and my gauge shoots up to almost redline...if I use my heater or turn on a blinker even more of a drop in electrics.... I checked the battery its at 12v if I turn the truck on even with everything on in the truck headlights etc... battery reads 14.#$% ...the truck pulls hard doesn't miss eather? I'm stumped I hsve a battery to block ground and the alternator is also grounded to block.I don't hsve the valve cover to firewall ground and my truck has been converted to carb 22re so I don't have the fuel injector ground...with offenhouser int mani lce head and cam d.u.I dizzy... any imput would help a ton ...also forgot to mention any bump I hit my lights also Flickr I plan on posting a YouTube video to help prob tomorrow night

deathbeaver

Also forgot to mention if I floor it in first our second every thing goes back to normal...but as soon as I let of it dim again

stanz

iTrader: (1)

I had almost the same symptoms. I had no chassis ground, the PO had put in high-output headlights without upgrading the wiring and several of the in cab grounds and guage cluster grounds were corroded.

I did the big three wire mod, added some beefy grounds between the block, body and chassis, cleaned up all of the corrosion and put in a new headlight harness. All of the issues you described went away.

You admitted that you may be missing a body ground. I would get on that right away before you burn up a wire or worse. Never hurts to have redundant grounds.

I went to West Marine and got fine stranded 4 guage cable for the battery terminals and ground straps.

deathbeaver

Any help on locations of the chassis grounds in cab and engine bay....assuming the gauge cluster grounds are behind the cluster?

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

I think the ground to the dash lights are on your left door post behind the kick panel.

deathbeaver

Word... thanks any idea on the others

stanz

iTrader: (1)

[CODE]I have no idea where the factory grounds would have been under the hood. Mine were all missing. I just made my own cables -- I found an easy to access bolt on the intake, added in some slack to my new cable and connected the other end to an existing bolt on the body. Just needs to make good clean contact.

As for the cluster, pull it out and inspect the printed circuit board. There are screws on the back that ground the guages to the circuit board. Remove each one, clean up with steel wool or a wire brush and replace -- again, making sure you have a good clean contact.

The ground for the guage cluster is a white wire with black stripe on driver side kick panel. Inspect for corrosion and clean up as well.

stanz

iTrader: (1)

Btw... a new headlight harness does wonders. Just know that Toyota uses a floating ground on the headlights. I didn't realize this and bought a universal harness. It blew my fuses and I didn't know why at first. Instead of returning it I just rewired it to work with the floating ground.

deathbeaver

Sweet man I'll give those a good cleaning...

lastname_firstname

could it possibly be the voltage regulator?

deathbeaver

I don't think so cause at 14v my lights shouldn't be dim? Fyi lights include dash lol...

stanz

iTrader: (1)

Any luck?

deathbeaver

Yes sir it was my missing chassis ground ....fixed it with some amp wire so far so good lol

ksti

Thanks to iamsuperbleeder for this. Take a look at this maybe can help.

deathbeaver

Yep I saw that before that's how I knew watt grounds I was missing thank you

87slosohc

Is #3 a factory ground?

deathbeaver

Yea and its important lol I was missing it and all kinds of things went fubar

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Glad you got it working

that #3 ground wire is not on any of my Toyota vehicles.

Then my ground wiring has all been updated with all new custom hardware and cable:wabbit2: