Re-Wiring Switches

Hi all, I just recently picked up myself a 1992 Supra Comp and everything so far is great, just giving it a bit of TLC, I did however run into a rather large problem with the switches on the dash. I found two broken (siezed up) switches on the left side of the dash, well the problem is, I did re-do my old 1984 Supra Comp dash last year but this 92 Comp takes the as far as complexity goes...

Ok, so this is the deal, i have 1 switch with 6 posts in the back of it, each one had somthing connected to it, it seems as if the negative wires are connected together and i have a orange/brown (#1) cable running from the fuse box, then I have a yellow cable coming from somehwere in the dash and then it seems like each one of the positive and negative cables are doubled up... they are doubled up with a resistor.... if anyone has any idea what im talking about please let me know. All im trying to figure out is why the heck there are 6 cables for each switch, its just a tad overdone in my opinion. Anyways, if you know why I have 6 cables for each switch, let me know... or if you have dealt with this kinda thing before, please let me know. I am a tad in over my head here I think.

Anyways, if anyone knows anything about switches, please let me know, i'll post some pics if needed but I pretty much am replacing every switch I have, so I will need to know what I'm doing before I jump in head first.

Thanks,

Morphix

have you talked to the guys at skidim?

What are the switches controlling that you're describing? If they control lights, for example, there may be a bunch of wires coming off it for separate lights, or groups of lights. can you post any pictures?

I've been down this road, not pretty. If the switches you have are oval shaped with a green or red light on one side then we have the same ones. The extra wires looping around from one pole to the other are for the led inside the switch. I had new dash panels cut from inconel last year and had to figure where all the wires went as well. I tried just randomly hooking up wires to try and find the right combination. After a coupla boxes of fuses i figured out that that doesn't work too well. What did work for me was actually taking the switch apart and seeing how it works inside to get an idea where the wires should go. If you are reasonably mechanically inclined, this could work for you. If not, then i can shoot some pics of it next time i'm at the boat (coupla days). I do remember this though: The poles on the side of the switch with the led are the ground connection for the led itself. I THINK the middle pole goes to the striped wire from the fusebox and the other pole is connected to the blower, or whatever it is you're switching. The resistors connected to the load wire then kind of loop over the center poles to connect to the ground poles on the other side of the switch.

On the switches with 6 poles, they are used to switch two separate ciruits with the same switch. I think the bilge pump switch is like this. The top 3 poles are powered by the fusebox "bilge 1" and the bottom 3 are powered by fusebox "bilge 2." Bilge 1 goes to the factory bilge pump in the center of the boat while bilge 2 may not be actaully used, but the wiring should be there for a second bilge pump at the stern.

Sorry if i've only muddied the water even worse. The'res been quite a bit of budweiser under the bridge since i did this job.

If you need me to, i can post pics of mine in a day or two. I've gotta pull the dash anyway to troubleshoot my satellite radio.

Its really not as bad as it looks. Once you put it together a coupla times, it actually starts to make a little bit of sense.

One thing you might also consider is replacing the switches with something a little more modern. These switches are problematic sometimes and there is definitely better stuff out there. Just an idea i've tossed around for a project next winter. There would definitely need to be some modification to the original wiring, but I really don't think it would be too bad.

DKJ, you are my hero! Yes, the ones you have, that's the same switches I have. Thanks for the explaination on the switches. I found some more modern replacement switches and your info will help me a ton, this looks messy. This weekend i'll jump in and see if I can get all the electrical stuff figured out and i'll take some pics and post it up. I believe I may have a wiring diagram which I am sure will make life easy, I just gotta see if I can find it.

Thanks again, I'll keep you guys posted.

-Morphix

Hey there! Any updates to your install? I am in the middle of the same thing and am scratching me head!

Hi gratefuljed, Yep finally I got around to it and I got mine working. At first my switches weren't working at all. Then I noticed it was a bad connection by my main breaker causing faulty electricity to everything, so that made my life hell. Anyways when I figured that out the rest fell into place.

Now as for the switches... I was able to get it working with my new rocker switches, I have no idea how I did it but I did. I can tell you how the old ones work and hopefully it will help. I also opened one of my switches up and took a peek inside, I suggest this as it will help you a lot when you see it work inside, it's pretty simple. Basically two of the posts, mine were silver in color.. those two were purely for the LED light inside of the switch... one positive and one negative. Then you have 4 more posts... 2 of them creates 1 curcuit and the 2 other posts create another circuit. I'll draw somthing up in paint real quick to give you a better idea. Follow that link for the cheesy pic.

http://www.madlan.net/supra/switch.JPG

Ok, looking at it from the bottom, the two on the left would be the LED posts and then I believe my + and -'s might be reversed for the other four posts but I know they are in that layout, either way; you will know it when you try it. Now as for the wire with the resistor in it, that one relays to the LED negative post as far as I remember.

So your black (negative cable) will split at one point for the 2 blowers and at another point for the 2 bilges(yeah i know you only have 1 bilge) but as far as the fuse box is concerned the boat has 2 bilge pumps circuits *shrugs*.

So ok, your black cable will split into a Y and then the resistor end goes to the LED light.. the other 2 black wires go to circuit 1 and circuit 2 on the negative posts. So then you have the positive circuit 1 and circuit 2 posts which gets the 2 positive wires from the fusebox. If i remember correctly one of those will split off to the LED positive post.

If you still have problems let me know, I hope all my confusion some how makes a bit of sense and helps you out.