Bypassing Dead Man Switch

[ErikIrvine]

I know the title kind of seems like a oxymoron or Darwin move but;

My Dad has a old 1986 Toyota pickup 4X4 he uses as a ranch truck up in Oregon on his property. He was having trouble starting the truck for awhile and the last time I was up there we figured out it is the mechanical/electrical gizmo that tells the computer or starter that the auto trans is in park. The gizmo is located off the side of the transmission right where the shifter comes down from the cab. We ended up tightening the linkage and doing a little Jerry rigging and it worked again for a couple of years. He called me today and says it has been difficult the last few months and he finally can't get it to start at all. So he wants to bypass this kill switch so he can start it in park or if he is dumb enough in another gear.

Does anybody know electrically how I could bypass this switch? If not is there a way I can bypass all dead man switches by running a wire from the ignition to the starter or something similiar?

He won't be able to crawl under the truck or do mechanic work so he was hoping I knew of a way to wire it maybe under the hood. He had his hips replaced last year and is pretty immobile still.

Oh yeah if it matters it is a 22RE with autotrans, 4X4 IFS Extended cab with a body lift and 33in. tires. Pretty bada$$ looking, has a smittybuilt roll bar too!

Thanks guys!

[ErikIrvine]

Better visual

[socalmoto]

Best i can do right now is give you a link to toyota manuals online http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/. They should have an electrical section and you can see what two wires go into the trans and maybe you can see if there is a switch that either opens/closes the circuit. Then just cut a wire to leave it open, or cut two wires and splice them to close the circuit and bypass it. You could run a wire straight from the ignition to the starter relay (probably in the fuse box under hood) and bypass the trans, but it might be a little dangerous if you dont run it right and after a while sheetmetal can cut through the shielding and it shorts out and starts a fire.

Are you sure the relay isnt just going bad?

[ErikIrvine]

There problem is where it changes the mechanical movement of the shifter to an electrical signal, I am guessing there is some sort of shoe or sliding contactor that is either wore out or something preventing the electrical connection or disconnection from happening.

[socalmoto]

Well thats what you can bypass by cutting/splicing the wires. The mechanical connector either makes contact between 2 wires (maybe more) and lets it start OR it disconnects two wires to let it start. So say its the first condition. If the trans is in park or neutral lets say a contact is made between a green wire and yellow wire, but the mechanical part doesnt make the contact anymore. So you cut the green and yellow wire outside of the connector and splice them together. Now they are always connected and will allow the starter to start at any time. I havent gone through that manual i linked you to, but there should be an electrical section and you can trace the ignition or starter wires and see what wires for the ignition go into the trans. You may be able to see if the connection opens/closes the circuit while in park/neutral. If not just write down the color wires and give it a shot out there. I may be able to check it out a little later and see if i can find the wire colors for you and whether to short or leave open.

[ErikIrvine]

Thanks for the replies socalmoto. I looked on your link but could not find te specific year/model my pops has. I may look at one that is close and see if the colors match what my pops has

[socalmoto]

checked the diagram. Looks like you should have a black wire and a black+white wire going into the neutral start switch. You should be able to cut those two wires, splice them, and start the truck if the problem is the neutral start switch.

Before cutting anything I would first check the relay. Hit it with some power and see if the truck starts. The relay is AFTER the trans in the circuit so the relay should send power directly to the starter. If that works I would shave some shielding off the black and black+white wire and use a wire to connect them. Then try starting with the key. Get a good contact between wires and use wire size that is the same. You dont wanna melt something. If this works then its up to you on whether to completely cut the wires and twist them together or do something else. If you do decide to cut, do not cut right at the connector. Leave enough wire out of the connector so you can splice the wires back to stock for whatever reason. Good luck

[ErikIrvine]

Thanks dude. Do you know where the relay is physically? Under the hood in one of the two fuse boxes?

[socalmoto]

Actually i looked again and you dont have one. It as only for manual trans. So your only starting problems would be the neutral switch, ignition switch, the starter, or an engine problem

[ErikIrvine]

So my pops went out to jumper the black and black/whit wire but couldn't find any that matched the white/blck description. He tried to jumper the whites and the blacks with no success. Here is what he found;

Thick black and white, smaller black, light green, dark green yellow, peach/beige, brown, red

Nine wires in total. Does anybody having a wire diagram for that specific setup. Maybe the engine that was replaced switched this out with other year??

[socalmoto]

Im looking through it but that link i sent is correct for your dads truck. Its under the 1984-1989 4runner. You have to download it but its not that big. That manual cover the 4runner and toyota truck from 1984-1989. The electric diagram i looked at for the ignition was on page 1459 more towards the top of the page. You can see that there is the Ignition Switch that runs out on a B-W, B wire (black-white for a/t, black for m/t). The B-W goes into the Neutral Start Switch and comes out B (black) and runs straight to the starter for the a/t. There are two branches before the neutral switch. One leads out to the EFI-ECU, and then comes in from the Cruise Control Computer. It goes out B-W and comes in B-W before the neutral switch. I assumed the Neutral Start Switch was on the trans.

[socalmoto]

Get it or still working on it?