Home About Contact Advertising Feedback Website Help Change Website Color

  • Welcome to Tacoma3G.com, a free resource for 2016-2023 Toyota Tacoma owners!

    This website is the passion-project of a USMC veteran/mechanic, @Tyler. I created Tacoma3G.com to share my knowledge of this subject with others and to provide like-minded folks with a comfortable space to ask questions and create 'build threads' within our Tacoma Forums. Now, if the format of this website is confusing to navigate for you, or if you're interested in my full mission and T3G's history, check out the Help and About pages.

Need some wiring help

XxMagpulxX

XxMagpulxX

5️⃣ Platinum
Tacoma3G Supporter
Joined
Jan 3, 2020
Messages
268
Reaction score
298
Location
Sparks, Nv.
2016 TRD OR DCSB Auto
Blazing Blue Pearl
Ok so I have an ARB dual compressor. To make a long story short, the ground wire FROM the switch is getting hot on both sides. To the point that it is melting the wire. The harness from the swich to the compressor is getting so hot its smoking. I obviously dont need a fire in the back of the truck soooooooo....... Will it stop if I ground the switch to a better spot or is there something else wrong? The two hot wires are straight to the battery.
I screwed with this for 2 hours today and had to stop because I was getting frustrated. There are 2 grounds to the top of the switch, but one of them is for illumination. I am out of ideas.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
And what’s your electrical setup? Are you running a switch pros or a switch pros and power tray combination. Or just the compressor with a relay?
 
Upvote 0
photos help with diagnosing a problem
upload_2020-1-28_10-15-16.jpg
 
Upvote 0
I have the switch on the purple wire and the black wire is grounded behind the tail light. This is not what came with the instructions.
Is this the way its supposed to be wired?
Here is how I have mine wired. Switch is on the purple side.
 

Attachments

  • wiring.jpg
    wiring.jpg
    183.7 KB · Views: 118
Last edited:
Upvote 0
mgmyota said:
And what’s your electrical setup? Are you running a switch pros or a switch pros and power tray combination. Or just the compressor with a relay?
Click to expand...
I have the Expedition Essentials bed cubby mount for the compressor and the ground is behind the tail light. I have thought about moving the ground, but that diagram is making me think that I have the switch on the wrong wire. I can switch the negative side, but I dont know what that will do for the heat being generated. I have thought about running ground wire straight back to the battery, but that is so far away from the compressor. I sat and thought about solutions for a couple of hours yesterday and couldn't think of a solution, so I gave up for the day. The ground and purple wire are both 18 gauge I think. The main ground is much bigger and is ground to the frame. I have a couple of weeks to come up with a solution as its probably going to snow for the next few days. Better anyway so I can come up with a solution.
 
Upvote 0
I would say to double check all your wiring again. I've seen multiple people combine the ground wires with a ring terminal and ground them to a common ground. It may not be a proper ground you're using. Instructions also do say to connect the grounds to the negative battery terminal. I hate trying to diagnose wiring issues like this, I wish I could actually be there and look at it all myself lol. I don't want to steer you in the wrong direction.
 
Upvote 0
Yeah, I completely get that. Its hard to diagnose wiring issues. I was just looking for some ideas since I was out of them. Im going to try to run a temporary wire straight from the battery to see if that solves the issue. I am also thinking about yanking the whole thing out and redoing the wire from the connectors to get some thicker wire on there. I am also thinking about making it a negative switch too. Im not sure how thats going to fix the heat issue so it will be the last thing I try. Im open to any other ideas too.
 
Upvote 0
I am an electrician by day so I can shed some light on this for ya. Conductors (wires) only get warm for 1 reason and
one reason only.... Current Flow, (AMPS) think of amps as volume of water flowing thru a pipe.
Now I did not pay much attention to the wiring diagram as sometimes they are rudamentary and do
not tell the whole story but I did see you had 18 AWG wire. 18 Awg wire is only good for 7-10 amps
at most. So if its melting the insulation that indicates it is way overloaded, say 20 amps of current flow
or more.
So only 2 things could be causing this...
1) incorrect wiring , ground fault
2) correct wiring , improper conductor size

hope that helps
 
Upvote 0
CapnJack said:
I am an electrician by day so I can shed some light on this for ya. Conductors (wires) only get warm for 1 reason and
one reason only.... Current Flow, (AMPS) think of amps as volume of water flowing thru a pipe.
Now I did not pay much attention to the wiring diagram as sometimes they are rudamentary and do
not tell the whole story but I did see you had 18 AWG wire. 18 Awg wire is only good for 7-10 amps
at most. So if its melting the insulation that indicates it is way overloaded, say 20 amps of current flow
or more.
So only 2 things could be causing this...
1) incorrect wiring , ground fault
2) correct wiring , improper conductor size

hope that helps
Click to expand...
I totally get what you are saying. Heres the thing, the 18 AWG wire is what the harness that came with the compressor was made of. So as I would normally agree with what you said, ARB did it for a reason, right? I think I will grind down all the ground contacts on the frame and try this again. I have never seen a ground wire get so hot that it melted the sleeve.
 
Upvote 0
Verify the wire colors match the position in the connector ARB designates.

I always run a ground back to common ground under the hood OE uses for everything I wire over at device location Much more reliable long term and easier to hunt down issues.

Also verify fuses used in required location to avoid damaging unit while you sort this short out.
 
Upvote 0
XxMagpulxX said:
I totally get what you are saying. Heres the thing, the 18 AWG wire is what the harness that came with the compressor was made of. So as I would normally agree with what you said, ARB did it for a reason, right? I think I will grind down all the ground contacts on the frame and try this again. I have never seen a ground wire get so hot that it melted the sleeve.
Click to expand...
If it was a poor connection then their would be more resistance.
Resistance would decrease amperage.
I believe your problem is a fault of some kind and actually be caused
by improper wiring.
 
Upvote 0
Think of it this way.... when you have a poor connection like on a common ground which we have
seen at one point or another on say a taillight on vehicle wiring or say trailer wiring, the wire or
wiring does not get warm at all... it simply will not work. That is because the corroded or poor
connection has increased resistance and the intended load(filament on a tailight lamp) does
not see the required 12 volts DC.
 
Upvote 0
Could be faulty equipment also
What a bummer of a problem.... Try calling ARB and get their opinion
 
Upvote 0
CapnJack said:
If it was a poor connection then their would be more resistance.
Resistance would decrease amperage.
I believe your problem is a fault of some kind and actually be caused
by improper wiring.
Click to expand...
So, I ran a 10 ga wire straight from the battery ground to the ground big ground wire from the compressor and it seems to have fixed the problem. So I guess I will be running a dedicated ground wire to the compressor from the battery next weekend.
Thanks for your input!
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top