Add a VSS to your transfer case/transmission. There is a plug there now since it receives its signal from the ABS system.

Link to my thread of a 3.4 swap/340f into a 92 but the principals will be the same.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f160...23/index9.html

 

good tech, thanks for sharing Sadly though, the speedo issue is someone else's problem, I sold the truck in August.... I still think about it every day

 

I'm curious what is so "dangerous" with your ABS?

 

Mine just wouldn't let the truck stop on a steep dirt hill and I almost crashed a few times before I disabled it. In the snow it can be like having no brakes sometimes. It just does it's pulsating thing, but it forgets that the brakes still need to stop the truck!

 

Early ABS systems (esp the first GM systems) don't pulse fast enough to stop the vehicle in time. Recall that, other than ice or wet leaves, ABS can actually INCREASE your stopping distance. ABS was never designed to stop the vehicle faster, it was designed to keep the wheels from locking up, as we all know a skidding vehicle cannot be controlled (Hence Anti-Lock Brake System).

ABS prevents skids by pulsing the brakes should wheel lockup occur. Unfortunately, if the brakes do not pump fast enough, the laws of physics simply take over. The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, so stopping a 4Runner brimming with kinetic energy means we must dissipate that energy in the form of heat (not friction, friction is a force). So, if the brake pad is pulsating against the rotor at a slow pace, the energy cannot be converted as quickly as continuous braking, increasing stopping distance.

Now its important to talk about pulses per minute. The newest and latest generations of ABS brakes can pulse upwards of 30,000 times a minute! That's efficiently fast, and the increased stopping distance due to the brake rotor and pad losing contact is really a negligible figure at that rate. The 4Runner on the other hand, while I have no actual pulse per minute rating for you, I assure you is excruciatingly slower than the current systems.

So we arrive a junction. When it comes to ABS in the earlier 3rd gen runners, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Toyota choose (perhaps wisely) to increase stopping distance but maintain vehicle control. Toyota kept in mind the types of people who drive their cars. On the other hand, there are drivers like you and myself that aren't complete idiots. Obviously, if I mash the brakes and they lock up, I can't steer. The solution? Pump them myself lol. I promise you, other than on ice, I could have stopped my 4Runner a lot faster than the on-board ABS at all times. It comes full circle back to the heat dissipation And also bear in mind, a skidding vehicle can actually stop even faster than the most advanced ABS (due to the MASSIVE amount of heat conversion a skidding set of 4 tires can produce), but there is no control of a skidding vehicle, so we have ABS instead.

But I wanted my cake, and me being a large guy, I wanted to eat it too. I elected for full manual control of my braking system after two very close calls with the 4Runner ABS braking system. Stopping in time would have never EVER been a question in my 3rd gen Pickup, but the 4Runner nearly cost me a ton of money. Fortunately I didn't end up rear ending anyone, but enough was enough and out came the ABS. One last point to bear in mind in this argument is that the ABS on the 4Runner is really completely different in operating principals than modern ABS. On new cars, each wheel is its own braking circuit so the computer can precisely control brake lockup. On the 4Runner, the rear axle is one brake line that comes to a t fitting on the axle, immediately and severely hindering the accuracy and response of the system altogether. Mechanically and electronically speaking, modern ABS and 3rd gen era ABS can be compared like apples and oranges...

I've pounded a lot of pavement in my 6 years of driving experience, and I feel confident that removing the ABS (for me personally as a driver) was actually a VAST safety improvement. And besides, who really wants all these new-fangled electronic nanny systems intruding on their driving. There is a reason I drive older cars, and that's because it just feels right. Me, the vehicle, and the pavement, not some outdated early 1990's semiconductor laced control box trying to provide real time feedback about stopping (less efficiently yet at that) when I am the person there driving

Sorry, but I felt this wasn't a question that could be answered without some sound reasoning lol. Enjoy the novel, I'll be here all year

 

Actually that was a great response. I knew all the pros and cons of ABS, but i didnt realize 3rd gens werent that great. I was actually wanting to get a 3rd gen so I COULD get ABS. Its scary on ice sometimes without ABS, even though I have been driving vehicles without ABS for nearly 6 years (all my driving life), and havent been in any accidents. I mainly wanted it becaue there seem to be an increase is stupid drivers here recently who tend to slam on their brakes if they miss their turn, and lots of tailgaters. I stay far enough back from the person in front of me, but the person behind me is on my a$$ and if I start sliding/skidding, they will probably git me. And then there are the people in the other lane next to the one I am in and I dotn want to hit/be hit by them when I lose control of my truck. I know how to pump my brakes, but even them, its momentary little skids on pure ice roads. I also just need better tires.

 

I'm in the same boat as the thread starter. I did a full floater conversion so my rear sensors are gone. Same thing happens, every now and then I dont have a speedo till the truck gets restarted. I also dont have a speedo for the first 50 to 100 yards of travel. I got a used VSS from inchworm and a new harness plug from toyota, just need some time to run the wires.

Anyways, the best thread for this is over on pirate. User ErikB did his sas on a 97 4runner. He had a vss on the tcase that he used and ran the 3 wires from the VSS to the ABS ecm on the kick panel. From there he was able to kill the ABS light and get a signal to the speedometer. There is also a way to kill the ABS light by un-clipping the connector on the ABS valve under the hood and grounding one of its pins. I may try that this week.

 

please post your results for future technical reference! also, if you have a link to the pirate thread, share it here as well please

 

User Max over on ttora sent this to me awhile back. This is how he killed the ABS light. I have not done this yet and I have no excuse why I have not tried yet. Maybe I will do it tomorrow before work.

This is the plug under the hood (passenger side, close to firewall) that attaches to the ABS unit.


Mossy's VSS writeup is here.

ErikB did one better and found speedo signal wire in the passenger kick panel. His thread is here.

A used VSS will run about $60 to $75. Jim at Inchworm gear normally has a few laying around and thats where I got mine. The harness connector that attaches to the VSS is Toyota Part #90980-11143 and is about $10.

 

This vss retro will only work on an auto tranny/ tcase though right? what if you have manual?

 

It worked great on my 2000 sr5 manual 4runner. Just look under your truck for the blank on the tcase if you want to be positive.

 

what about doing this on a 2wd with no transfer case? Any ideas on how to make that work?

Id be willing to paypal someone some money if they can map this out for me. I am tired of not having a speedo. Thanks!

 

Anyone have an idea? I have no sensors, and I do have a speed sensor in the tranny, but I am not sure how I can bypass any of it and make it work. I cannot do this mod since I do not have a transfer case. Thanks in advance.

 

Well it only took me 6 months to post an update. Sorry long over due.

The image I posted above of the connector for the ABS unit is for what I believe the 99 and newer models have. The one in the picture is from an 04 tacoma. So needless to day my 97 did not look anything like that.

To get the ABS light off, I had what I believed to be an accurate wire diagram but after clipping the wire that I believed powered the ABS light and nothing happening, I decided to just pull the cluster and remove the bulb. This surprisingly took a whooping 6 minutes... Two screws at the top of the cluster, two 10mm bolts by your knees, then 4 screws hold the cluster in place. There is enough slack in the wire harness to pull it out and reach the bulb.

With the light off, I was now able to get my truck smogged. As for a working speedo, I pulled the ABS ecu and wired the + side of the vss to the the yellow wire on the large clip that came off the ABS ecu. This is +12v on ignition.

Ground on the vss went to a nearby bolt, and signal for the vss went to the grey wire with light blue stripe on the same clip that the 12v signal is on.

Went for a test drive and the speedometer worked instantly. The downside, the vss I had was probably made for a tacoma with 3.90 gears and 31" tires. So my speedometer was about 85% off. Reading 70mph at 60mph.

So in the end I sprang $70 and got a dakota digital unit off ebay and wired that in. Coarse setting 15, Fine setting 9, using the OC output and all dip switches off got the speedometer to match my gps perfectly.




Anyways, posting this in case anyone else runs into this.

SanDog, if you have a 3 wire sensor coming out of your trans and you have the ABS harness like I do, just wire it the same way. If you have no ABS harness you can go directly to the back of the cluster like MossyRocks did here: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=626684