4wd indicator light wiring

[KDizzle]

Conclusion:

Checked switch while in t-case as directed…no continuity. Replaced with a new switch from Napa. All is well. 4WD dash indicator light now working as it should.

Thanks fellas, really appreciate the guidance! Probably be picking y’all’s brains on a few other electrical issues in other threads. Thanks again!

 

[Blue Ox]

In my experience, it won't last.

Hope your experience is better than mine.

 

[jj81]

Wanted to come back and wrap up this thread for any future searches.

The sub-harness for the 4wd system has 3 wires:

Grey is the power for the illumination light on the floor mounted shifter. It has a green connector and plugs into the bottom left slot of the fuse block. It is keyed and will only go in one slot. It draws power from the headlight switch and is only powered when the headlights are on. It only runs about half the total length of the harness.
Black is the ground wire for this harness. It has a black connector on one end that goes to the ground strap on/around the parking brake. This wire is actually two wires. It runs in one wire from the ground strap to the floor shifter light bulb, and then a second wire runs from that light bulb to the connector that plugs into the tcase.
White is in a way also a ground wire. The way this system works is that the switch in the tcase opens/closes the ground connection. When in 4wd, the switch is closed and passes the ground connection from the black wire to the white wire. This wire runs from the tcase connector back to the behind the dash area. I am unsure of what it's original length is.

The white wire being a switched ground ends up being exactly what is need to illuminate the indicator light in the gauge cluster. If you look at the circuit panel/board on the back of the gauge cluster and do some contact tracing you will discover that the 4wd indicator light always has keyed +12 volts to it. It just so happens that the wiring harness connector that plugs into the gauge cluster also has one empty spot in it and that spot correlates with the ground connection for the 4wd indicator light. It's like it was meant to be.

So in short, using a spare wiring harness I removed a pin from the gauge cluster connector and attached it to this white wire. I then added that pin to my gauge connector in the truck. And it works perfectly. Hope this helps someone out there.

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In case you were wondering, this wiring joint is done mostly proper with one of those cool marine heat shrink butt connectors that has solder in it. I just taped it shoddily for more protection.

I am in the same situation but I mostly have it all figured out. The only part that has me confused, on the American Auto Wire fuse block, were do I re-plug the Gray wire (with green connector and is for the light of the shift lever console)? On the old fuse block, it was connected to the lower left spot named "LPS" (Limited Power or lamps meaning maybe?). On the new American Auto Wire fuse block, that same location is now named "BAT", is this the same or do I need to use a different slot, like ACC?

 

[EvilGenius]

I am in the same situation but I mostly have it all figured out. The only part that has me confused, on the American Auto Wire fuse block, were do I re-plug the Gray wire (with green connector and is for the light of the shift lever console)? On the old fuse block, it was connected to the lower left spot named "LPS" (Limited Power or lamps meaning maybe?). On the new American Auto Wire fuse block, that same location is now named "BAT", is this the same or do I need to use a different slot, like ACC?

Diagrams would be nice, but even without them this isn't too difficult. Bust out your multimeter and start probing. You only want power when the light switch is pulled. Start checking for voltage in slots that fit the connector under that condition. If you can't find one consider if switched power is acceptable to you. If it isn't and there aren't any slots that work you'll have to make one.

To make one I would back trace the light switch wiring to it's output. On that output connect a relay in line so that it is powered every time the lights are on. Then use the output of that relay to power this light.