The "No Cut" A-TRAC + RR DIFF Hack.

[LAB 601]

i do notice one thing i had a question about. after success- in 2h or 4h and the locker button is engaged, the dash locker icon flashes. is this to be expected?

[superstar555]

LAB 601 previously said:

i do notice one thing i had a question about. after success- in 2h or 4h and the locker button is engaged, the dash locker icon flashes. is this to be expected?

The rear locker light will flash until the locker actually engages.

Usually the vehicle has to be in motion for this to occur.

[LAB 601]

superstar555 previously said:

The rear locker light will flash until the locker actually engages.

Usually the vehicle has to be in motion for this to occur.

i see this while driving with the locker button engaged-i am assuming the blinking is it's way of saying that you cant engage it in 2h or 4h. would be better to have it disappear like atrac does on these modes,

just wanna make sure im not screwing anything up.

[oldskoolbrother]

I thought some one had written that there was a factory ecu reflash that would correct. this issue with out doing any mods.

[superstar555]

oldskoolbrother previously said:

I thought some one had written that there was a factory ecu reflash that would correct. this issue with out doing any mods.

To my knowledge the current Toyota corporate response is: "No.".

[norecoil]

I just completed the MOD. I neglected to disconnect the battery so when I tried it out I had a few other lights on as well. I just disconnected the battery for about 30 sec and all is well. The removal of the pin is a pain. I ended up pulling the wire out of the connector. If I ever wanted to connect it back I will just bypass the LA2 plug w/ the blue/yellow wire. As far as a Toyota tech ever spoting this mod good luck. From what I hear of some of the oil change issues "overfilling" and such I don't think they will know what they are looking at. My alarm is also installed in the left kick plate area. So there is alot of other stuff to hide it.

[ZroBug]

ZroBug previously said:

I know what I'm doing over the weekend!!!

~ Great post SuperStar & Alex. Thank you!

Works as advertised!
Indeed, I was able to complete this hack/mod earlier today WITHOUT cutting a single wire (aside from the +12V splice wire required). I have to say though it was nowhere near as simple as I expected it to be. Ended up taking me A LOT longer than 15-30 minutes quoted by others. Perhaps it’s my complete noob-ness at this type of electrical work or I was having an off day.

My experience as follows:

1. Review and print off notes – 30 minutes (Fun and easy)
2. Tool and vehicle prep – 5 minutes (Easy)
3. Disconnect truck battery – 3 minutes (Easy)
4. Removal of the step panel, dead pedal, and Kick Panel – 5 minutes (Easy)
5. Location of L2 connector – 3 minutes (Easy)
6. Disconnect Female from Male – 5 minutes (First though, damn this is a very tight space!)
7. Get Male side of connector tab located and pushed down so I can push the connector through the Blue Support harness of death – 1 hour! (Christ almighty! - HARD)
8. Once the male connector is pushed through time it took to realize that there was nowhere near enough slack in the wires to work comfortably – 4.08 Seconds
9. Breakout blade and CAREFULLY cut through electrical tape wrapping L2 wire bundle to get more slack in the wire so it’s easier to work with – 4 minutes (Most tense moment… just thinking Don’t rush, light touch, Don’t screw this up because it will FUBAR my whole truck up…. – Not hard but made me nervous)
10. Pop retaining clamp – 1 Minutes (Easy)
11. Press tab and disengage pin 11 – 45 minutes (The second coming of Christ! – HARD)
12. Reassemble L2 Connector – 2 minutes (Easy)
13. Wrap 3Amp fuse with splice wire and press into place in under dash fuse box – 5 minutes (Easy)
14. Place other end of splice wire onto and wrap around pin 11 – 1 minute (Easy)
15. Wrap pin 11 connection point with electrical tape – 1 minute (Easy)
16. Reconnect truck battery – 3 minutes (Easy)
17. Fire up the truck to test and verify – 1 minute (Success on the first go! YEAH!)

I then left the panels of and took it for an easy does it spin, just to verify things were working and they were! Finished up by putting the panels back in place and the upgrade was a wrap.

All in all I am very pleased with the results, but it was a much more involved mod than I had anticipated. However, that said I would still perform this method of getting the hack going as it is 100% reversible.

~ Cheers!

[mach]

ZroBug previously said:

Works as advertised!
Indeed, I was able to complete this hack/mod earlier today WITHOUT cutting a single wire (aside from the +12V splice wire required). I have to say though it was nowhere near as simple as I expected it to be. Ended up taking me A LOT longer than 15-30 minutes quoted by others. Perhaps it’s my complete noob-ness at this type of electrical work or I was having an off day.

My experience as follows:

1. Review and print off notes – 30 minutes (Fun and easy)
2. Tool and vehicle prep – 5 minutes (Easy)
3. Disconnect truck battery – 3 minutes (Easy)
4. Removal of the step panel, dead pedal, and Kick Panel – 5 minutes (Easy)
5. Location of L2 connector – 3 minutes (Easy)
6. Disconnect Female from Male – 5 minutes (First though, damn this is a very tight space!)
7. Get Male side of connector tab located and pushed down so I can push the connector through the Blue Support harness of death – 1 hour! (Christ almighty! - HARD)
8. Once the male connector is pushed through time it took to realize that there was nowhere near enough slack in the wires to work comfortably – 4.08 Seconds
9. Breakout blade and CAREFULLY cut through electrical tape wrapping L2 wire bundle to get more slack in the wire so it’s easier to work with – 4 minutes (Most tense moment… just thinking Don’t rush, light touch, Don’t screw this up because it will FUBAR my whole truck up…. – Not hard but made me nervous)
10. Pop retaining clamp – 1 Minutes (Easy)
11. Press tab and disengage pin 11 – 45 minutes (The second coming of Christ! – HARD)
12. Reassemble L2 Connector – 2 minutes (Easy)
13. Wrap 3Amp fuse with splice wire and press into place in under dash fuse box – 5 minutes (Easy)
14. Place other end of splice wire onto and wrap around pin 11 – 1 minute (Easy)
15. Wrap pin 11 connection point with electrical tape – 1 minute (Easy)
16. Reconnect truck battery – 3 minutes (Easy)
17. Fire up the truck to test and verify – 1 minute (Success on the first go! YEAH!)

I then left the panels of and took it for an easy does it spin, just to verify things were working and they were! Finished up by putting the panels back in place and the upgrade was a wrap.

All in all I am very pleased with the results, but it was a much more involved mod than I had anticipated. However, that said I would still perform this method of getting the hack going as it is 100% reversible.

~ Cheers!

Amen brother! I'm an engineer and a former mechanic, and it took me 2 hours to do this. In the end, I couldn't manage to get the damn pin out of the connector (broke a screwdriver off in it somehow) and just cut the damn wire and ran a jumper. What kind of magical screwdriver is small enough to fit into the connector far enough to get the pin released? My eyeglasses screwdrive was the smallest I had, and I broke it trying to wedge it in there.

I'm not too worried about a Toyota mechanic fininding this one cut wire out of the 400 that run through that area. Since they put electrical tape all over it from the factory, I'll just wrap a little more around that spot and they'll never know.

I should have just done the underhood hack, so much easier.

[ZroBug]

mach previously said:

Amen brother! I'm an engineer and a former mechanic, and it took me 2 hours to do this. In the end, I couldn't manage to get the damn pin out of the connector (broke a screwdriver off in it somehow) and just cut the damn wire and ran a jumper. What kind of magical screwdriver is small enough to fit into the connector far enough to get the pin released? My eyeglasses screwdrive was the smallest I had, and I broke it trying to wedge it in there.

I'm not too worried about a Toyota mechanic fininding this one cut wire out of the 400 that run through that area. Since they put electrical tape all over it from the factory, I'll just wrap a little more around that spot and they'll never know.

I should have just done the underhood hack, so much easier.

Mach,
Well good. Someone else agrees that it was a difficult first run. I have no doubt that I could do it quicker the second time around but the first was a real adventure in what brain surgery must feel like.

That said, this still is an awesome mod and very clever hack that does not require any cutting of factory wires. I would still recomend it for those interested in keeping thier FJ's in a condition that is reversible should a software update become avaliable down the road at some point.

Just plan on it taking a couple of hours if it's your first attempt, and take your time, the results are well worth it!

[AF Chief]

Under the hood is reversable...splice, heatshrink, tape.

ZroBug previously said:

Mach,
I would still recomend it for those interested in keeping thier FJ's in a condition that is reversible should a software update become avaliable down the road at some point.