I am VERY new at attempting to do anything to my 3rd gen 4runner other than put gas in it. I have done a few basic mods such as the K&N intake and DRL disable switch but other than that I'll clueless. My battery (probably the same one it's had since 02) finally died a few days ago. I replaced it with a duralast gold top (couldn't afford the optima) and noticed that my battery terminals were corroded pretty bad. I thought about replacing the battery cables at the same time as the terminals and upgrading the standard 8 gauge wire with nice 4 gauge. I did some online research and found a bunch of info on the BIG 3 wire replacement. I bought a haynes manual to try to figure out how to do it but it is little help. The wires are currently bundled in a split loom type harness and I'm not sure what goes where and how to start the project. I don't want to start cutting and unhooking stuff without some kind of game plan. Any ideas or PIC's would be much appreciated. Thanks for helping a newbie

 

The Haynes isn't for modifications. It has fairly complete wiring diagrams if you know how to read them, which apparently you do not.....but don't feel bad; I can't read them either.

Most of the people on here will refer you to a stereo wiring site or just babble general info at you which will be no help at all like; "just upgrade the ground wire, the wire to the alt & the one to the fuse box doood"

I'd recommend giving 4crawler a yell, either here by P.M. or on his website http://www.4crawler.com/4Runner.shtml

He's pretty sharp with wiring & other stuff. Maybe he'll see this post & chime in.

 

Thanks for the heads up Brenjen.

 

Thanks alot brenjen- I just blew coffee out my nose and all over my monitor

 

Sorry. I just find people aren't specific enough when helping the noobs & I know 4crawler will be (well...could be, he has the knowledge) There are others on here that know specifically what to do & can provide pictures, I'm not knocking everyone just trying to get the guy to the most concise info I can seeing as how I haven't done the upgrade myself so I can't give them an A: - B: - C: with pictures explanation.

 

I hear ya- It was still pretty funny because I've seen so many posts just like the ones you were refering to...

 

Hey Run4it, did you ever find out anything about the "big 3" and wire loom thing? I have also been looking into this for my 3rd gen, but haven't found anything specific. tia

 

I wouldn't tear open a harness to upgrade wiring, just add a second cable in parallel. Or just bypass the existing cable if its bad or something.

Like here's one I did off my main alternator "+" cable:


Here's a redundant ground from my alt/block to the battery:



I also did an upgrade on the body to battery ground, that smaller wire about a foot long (it can be seen in this pic). When it comes to grounding redundancy is a good thing.