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Mystery Connector Under 87 Brat's Passenger Seat Carpet


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Hello Folks,

 

I have the interior of my Brat torn apart. Basically trying to figure out my low voltage problems within the dash. Alternator and battery, including cables check out OK; the truck starts fine etc. Another reason is to replace the existing stereo and speakers with new units. Will run dedicated speaker wires, thus doing away with common speaker grounds. I will also run dedicated fused power for the new headunit and also run grounds to two or three points within the cab. Thereafter will run pigtails from existing grounds (need to find a few within the cab) to the new points.

 

Have not made much progress, but I believe I have fixed my clock memory (bonus). Basically undid one sure seal single bullet connector and plugged the male end into a vacant sure seal female bullet connector just hanging under the dash. Just checked the clock and it is keeping memory. Will watch it to make sure this is not an adverse fix.

 

While visually inspecting wires etc., I came across two unused and corroded 4 pin connectors under the passenger seat carpet (see picture). The two terminals do not mate to each other as they are similar (no male/female relationship). One has the wires totally separated due to corrosion and the other one shows signs of corrosion on the terminals. Does anyone know what these are for? Perhaps unused in the Brat, but used in other EA81 vehicles? Am having trouble attaching the picture.

 

Thanks,

 

aba4430

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Those bullets for the clock memory are there for shipping purposes. On the cruise over from Japan they didn't want the clock's draining the battery's.

 

Low voltage (at the gauge) is often the gauge mounting studs/nuts on the back of the cluster. They corrode at the PCB connection as no electrical grease was used when they were assembled.

 

It can be other corroded connections in the harness as well. Pretty simple to trace - just check for voltage drop across each circuit from the battery positive. A $3 DMM from harbor frieght will do the job.

 

GD

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  • 1 month later...

Low voltage (at the gauge) is often the gauge mounting studs/nuts on the back of the cluster. They corrode at the PCB connection as no electrical grease was used when they were assembled.

 

GD

 

Yup mine was that way, gas always read empty too. Cleaned it up and my volt meter shot way up, and my tank magicly filled itself.

Lot cheaper than a new alt. :)

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It may have been translucent white originally, but over the years has turned into pale yellow/yellowish. It is a single connector with pliable silicon? rubber around it. It is in the area under the dash, very little to the left (drivers side). If you take the under dash cover off and drop the fusebox (two machine screws), inspect/wiggle wires, you will see the connection - take it apart and look for an identical vacant female conductor to plug into. Keep in mind, it is not the single white thicker guage power? cable above the fuse box area that also is connected via a silmilar connector.

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  • 11 years later...

Thread resurrect: OK, so I have lived with the low reading voltage gauge for years, but it is bugging me now and I need to make some extra effort to fix it. I have been doing several other fixes to the Brat, and why not tackle this nagging issue once and for all. I will clean up the mounting contacts and have also read that there may be an unconnected ground under the dash. However, several past half hearted attempts have failed to find this elusive ground wire. Any further obvious leads I need to pursue, other than cleaning up mounting contacts for the gauges and general wire troubleshooting.

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