Toad-wiring an '05 CRD:

Gypsy62 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 28, 2016 1:58 pm

I have a '98 tiffin rv, which has the old-style combined blinker/brake light-circuit setup (brake-lights are just L/R blinkers illuminating simultaneously). I just installed the road master toad wiring kit into my '05 CRD, including four inline diodes.
QUESTION:
Anybody know what function is performed by the KJ's oem black plastic light-circuit "control" box located hanging in front of the kj's left-rear taillight?
I'm fairly certain that there exists on the planet a "control box" which is capable of distinguishing a "brake-hold" from a "blinker pulse", providing an output signal that splits the brakes from L/R. That output-capability would permit the kj to be wired so that its stock rear blinkers would blink rather than its brake-light circuit as blinkers, and the brake light circuit would also be independent.
This oem mystery box is easily visible from under the rear-left of the kj; hanging loosely in-line behind the left-rear taillight, directly inside the rear curve of the left-rear quarter panel.
Is it possible that it is a brake/blinker splitter box? If so, then wiring-in BEFORE that box could solve the brake/blinker gang/split conundrum.

Many Thanks.

PS- it just occurred to me that I may be screwed by the rv-kj circuit mismatch: if I swap from the kj's L/R circuit (which I've already "successfully" wired at the kj's taillights) to the kj's brake circuit (which is independent from the kj's L/R circuit, unlike the rv), then BOTH sides may blink simultaneously, like hazards instead of L/R.
I'll know shortly, but still curious about kj's hanging black box.
Merde (that's French for "married")...

Gypsy62 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2016 4:07 am

Answered myself.
Well, I still don't know what the OEM black box is, but here's the deal with toad wiring:
These are long-winded detailed instructions, but some folks may appreciate the small stuff. I'll add pics soon.
A. To RnR the two rear taillight lenses, swing open the tailgate to access the 2/per lens securing screws (they're those star-drives used all over KJs). The 2 rear-right screws face aft and are easily visible and accessible; the 2 rear-left screws face the right side of the vehicle, visible with the gate fully open near the gate-hinges, accessible using a >3" bit extender. Once you've removed the 2 L.&2 R. screws, remove the lenses by pulling directly backwards, not necessarily easy: each lens has 2 plastic pin-tabs that can be a pita to pull free. ALWAYS PULL the lenses DIRECTLY BACKWARDS ONLY, otherwise you'll snap the lens' pin-tabs, making the lens useless!
Once you've dislodged the lenses, rather than installing the toad wiring with them dangling it's MUCH easier to wire the feeds and diodes with the lenses completely removed: to disconnect the wiring harness from the lens body, you need to slide the small red locking-tab on the plug to free the plug from the lens. In one position, the red tab is split-looking, in the other position its solid red plastic; solid red is the position for removal, but you'll probably still have to jiggle while pulling to free the plug from the lens.

B. The wire colors seem non-standard. I've never seen brown assigned to anything other than the taillight circuit, but maybe it's more common than I'm aware.
The OEM KJ taillight wiring assignments:
WHITE/thin RED STRIPE= TAILLIGHTS;
WHITE/thin BROWN STRIPE= BRAKES;
YELLOW=LEFT;
GREEN=RIGHT.

I will add pics and other info in next few days.

Gypsy62 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 21, 2016 6:28 pm

Okay, Link to pics at dropbox, but I'm a newbie and couldn't label and sequence them. Hopefully it's fairly obvious what's what:

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/cgpwsojmz1gn ... tk56Z_TQza

A. Mystery black light box located in left-rear cavity.

B. My hi-tech blue-sharpied zip-tie arrows pointing, granted not very accurately (c'mon, folks: they're the only screws nearby) at the location of the 2 left/2 right lens retaining screws.
To R&R the 2 left rear lens screws, the tailgate must be swung fully open. Using a magnetic 3" bit extension, I found that holding the drill at 2 o'clock worked best for the screws' R&R.

C. View of removed lens, focusing on the two forward-pointing plastic mounting pins that you do NOT want to break!

D. My amazingly tidy diode installation. Not so much, because I chose to stretch electrical tape across to each diodes opposing wire-tabs to help reduce the possibility of them coming loose from vibration (while trying not to run tape over the diode's cooling fins).

E. Close-up of the brown-striped factory wire that is a BRAKE feed, not taillight (odd).

After the install, I kept blowing top-left lens bulbs (tail/brake). After reinforcing all of my wiring connections, judging from a burn-mark inside the lens I think the culprit was actually a loose piece of plastic inside the lens itself. It seems likely that the sketchy 'internal flap' was intermittently resting directly on the bulb's surface. I reached in and jammed the loose piece firmly back into place. So far so good.
(loose-ish plastic flap located inside the pictured upper half-dome of the lens, above white back-up half-dome).

Good luck.

Toad-wiring an '05 CRD:

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