Previous owner messed with electrical

[SquareDave]

I had to have a brake controller installed, and it turned out to be more of a hassle than it should have been. The previous owner had done some inexplicable electrical mods. The one that really messed things up was that the wired that a brake controller uses was cut. Is there any legitimate (or illegitimate) reason, how ever silly, for cutting that wire?



There are a couple of other deviations from the original system:



(1) an aftermarket inline fuse that can't even be explained as for redundant purposes. If either one trips it circuit is broken. I can't even imagine what he was thinking.



(2) a toggle switch hanging under the dash and the wire is live. No apparent change occurs whether it's on or off. The wire disappears into the firewall, and we can't track where it goes.



Everything seems to be working at the moment, but my curiosity is getting the best of me. Could somebody clue me in on what might have been going on with those mods, especially cutting the brake controller wire?

 

[TLane]

Sounds like it might have been a home made anti-theft system. With just the right size fuse, the truck will run for a while and then quit. But that's just a wild guess.

My other guess would be that he was using the brake controller wire for something else. He probably didn't need a brake controller but need a wire going from inside to outside for some reason. Extra lights, backup camera power, relay control for on board air, who knows?

 

[Prairie Dog]

Will it start when you flip the switch? I'm wondering if he tapped into the clutch switch.

 

[RodMorris]

Clutch switch was my first thought, too. I've been meaning to put one on mine.

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

Probably too cheap to purchase a wiring harness and spliced into it. May have had aux lights, too, or a funky horn.

 

[SquareDave]

The clutch switch is possible although the toggle has no effect on whether the engine starts. Last May I had to have the clutch switch replaced. If the toggle had anything to do with the clutch switch before, it no longer does.

Will also be checking with the guy who installed the alarm to see it he put that toggle there for some reason that I forgot about.

The "too cheap" option is quite possible from what I've found on this vehicle over the months that I've had it. It wouldn't surprise me if he hung fuzzy dice from the mirror to help it run better. If I had it to do again, I wouldn't have bought it, but I've now got what I've got so I gotta deal with that reality. At least the motor was too tough to die, and it has given me some 20,000 miles so far.

That he cut the brake controller wire is going to keep me awake nights just wondering.

 

[RodMorris]

I just put a South Bend clutch in my truck with the upgraded hydraulics. While I had the old master/slave cylinder laying on the bench I pulled out my ohm meter and checked the clutch switch. It's open with the clutch pedal out and closed with the clutch pedal depressed.