Help Me, Please!

[WoofsPlow]

I had a '95 Toyota (not Tacoma) with a MM1 and it worked great. Truck went bad so I thought I would mount the plow on my '96 Tacoma. I had to make brackets to mount the pushplate but it finally mounts correctly.

I wired the harness yesterday (everything was the same) went to raise the plow and it went up fine, would not angle - I dropped the plow and now it will not do anything. I chased gremilins for hours yesterday to no avail. All I am getting is a click at the motor relay and then a small click from the plow motor. I am getting 12v when plow is activated through the plug and to the connector at the motor but no voltage when it's attached?? I cleaned everything. Is this an electrical problem? I tried to run through the Fisher troubleshooting guide - the motor brushes look fine the motor shaft spins freely. Where the heck is the filter screen on the pump??

The solenoids at the pump - they each work a different function or do they work together? The wiring for the lights seems messed up - driver side plow blinker only blinks when either left or right turn signal is on. The bulb on the pass side I think is blown. If wiring for lighting is messed-up does that effect the plow operation?

Please help, I will try anything, snow coming down now and I don't want to loose any customers this yaer. Thanks in advance, Jim

[bud16415]

I don’t know how much help I can be but I’m sure some experts will post in soon for you. first thing is to back away from the problem and take a deep breath. Then start breaking it down is what I would do. If there is no function at all I would assume it’s electrical for sure. And knowing it worked before on the old truck and everything matching up on the new I would assume it’s pretty close. The fact that it went up and then failed is telling me it’s most likely things that changed in the swap. Mainly the wire harness is what I would look at. Did any of the plugs get damaged or need cleaned. Did any wires or terminals pull loose during removal or replacement. Check all the fuses etc. while you are waiting do some of this if you haven’t already. Then I would start with the motor and a set of 12 volt test probes and start testing valves and motor that they pick up and run. What you have to do is eliminate some of the stuff so that you will narrow in on the problem. One of the first things I always look for is good ground connections clean and tight. Good luck if you don’t come up with the answer fast post more as you find more information. I’m sure the guys will help out.

[nsmilligan]

Check your ground, the black wire on the power harness, both at the pump and at the truck.

Bill

[WoofsPlow]

Checked with multimeter ground at battery, at plug and at plow motor - all is registering (I THINK)

[Got Snow?]

check the main ground as stated, also make sure your marker/directional leas are correct.

[Arc Burn]

Sounds like a bad power(battery) cable.If all your connections are clean and you have a good ground then hook a set of jumper cables from the plow to the posotive post on the solenoid and a good ground in the engine compartment and see if it works.
If you have an extra pair of hands,wiggle the power cables while someone operates the plow(watch your feet!)You could probably figure out which end is bad this way.I seem to change more plow side battery cables for some reason,anyways,try that.

[Wizard]

First thing that came to my mind is a bad ground on the truck side. You can check with an ohm meter til you're blue in the face, but that's not gonna tell you anything, only that there's continuity. Your ground cable can be connected, but if there's corrosion or rust, it won't carry the current to ground. Sure, it's still grounded, but if the connection isn't good enough, it's not going to work when you try to push a lot of current through it. Take my rear lighting for example. I have 4 55 watt lights on my spreader, via a custom harness. When I installed it, I just grounded the lights through the mounting screws on the bumper. Sure, the lights worked, but they were very dim, because the ground through the bumper wasn't good enough. I drilled a small hole in the frame, ground off the rust, paint, dirt, etc. with a side grinder. Then I coated the wire terminal with dielectric grease and bolted it tightly to the frame. The lights were nice and bright then. Check that ground, I'm betting that's what it is, especially since you're having problems with lights as well as the pump. If it was just the pump, I would say maybe the power cable, if not the ground, but this definitely sounds like a bad ground.

[PSDFordMan]

The wiring for the lights seems messed up - driver side plow blinker only blinks when either left or right turn signal is on. The bulb on the pass side I think is blown. If wiring for lighting is messed-up does that effect the plow operation?



This right here is the bell ringer. When I installed the new headlights on my Boss, I had the exact same thing happen. I would turn the left blinker on, and both bulbs would blink. Turn the right blinker on, both bulbs blinked. And with the parking lights on, the little green arrows in the dash were on also. and also very dim high and low beams, just as you described. The culprit? A complete lack of grounding. I didn't realize that the plow frame wasn't grounded at all. All I did was run a ground from the headlights into the backside of the housing, attached to the ground on the pump. :rockon Everything worked good.

Easiest way I've found to test grounding is to run a little jumper wire from whatever ground you suspect is bad directly over to the battery terminal. Use this method at your own personal risk. I'll be the first to admit it's not the safest. I've been zapped a couple times myself.. 1eye1

[WoofsPlow]

OK - I agree it's electrical and probably a ground, but my head is starting to hurt from hitting it againest the wall1eye2 . Now, where would the main truck ground be located? There is a small (12ga maybe) that runs from the neg battery terminal about 2" long and bolts to the fender well. I have removed this cleaned it dialectric lubed and re-installed it - is this the main vehicle ground? Perhaps the wire gauge needs to be increased because vehicle was not originally designed for these high loads? Now, the plow did go up (once) why only once? From past experiences if it's a bad ground it will not go at all until the ground is proper. Please stay with me on this and throw any suggestions my way - I will be back out there around noon and will run through everything. Thanks

p.s. - Snow is coming Friday and I must have 30 messages on my pnone for people needing me to plow for them

p.p.s. My unemployment insurance runs out next week

[WoofsPlow]

I thought a picture would help...

[Wizard]

Does your ground cable from the plow motor run right to the battery? The battery is the main ground of your truck, the ground side of the battery is then tied into the frame, which everything else on the truck is grounded to. If you're relying on the plow frame for your ground, it's not going to work well. My guess would be that the first time you raised the plow, the connection was just good enough to allow the current to pass, then raising the plow tweaked the mount just enough to lose the connection, upsetting the flow of current to ground. If your ground cable from the motor isn't connected right to the battery, rectify that first. Every plow I've ever had, both the power cable to the solenoid, and the ground cable to the motor have been connected directly to the battery, and I've never had the problem you're describing. Check that and let us know. As said above, you can run a jumper from the ground post on the motor to the ground post of the battery, if it works then, you know what the problem is. Good luck!

[WoofsPlow]

Whew! It works! Took the advice offered here, here's what went down.

Hooked up jumper cable from neg side of battery directly to neg terminal on plow motor, hit the switch............nothing

Hooked up positive cable directly from motor relay to pos post on plow motor,hit the switch..................... it works!:rolling

Took the jumper cables off.................. now everything works! Why now? Who knows why......... maybe the truck & plow needed to get to know each other. Well, now I can at least get plowing and make sure I have the jumper cables with me I will run them while plowing!

Now for another situation! I moved the plowframe from my '95 Toyota pickup to my '96 Tacoma needing to make special brackets:weld and drop the mount about 2" to clear the radiator. The brackets with plow raised are VERY low to the ground the blade itself is about 6" off the ground! I just purchased a coil spacer that will raise the height of the truch 2" in the front which will help. Perhaps Timbrens will also help - any other suggestions?

TAHNKS TO ALL