Just a few thoughts from a former Marine Corps Radar techie type: Never, ever use a butt splice for a permanent harness fix. Strip your wires back about 3/8" on both sides, tin both sides with solder (ie: flow solder onto the wire until it's a pretty silver) always, ALWAYS using a liquid type flux every time you apply the iron to the wires, then make a little hook in both ends of the tinned wire with small jawed needle nose pliers, hook the hooks together and squeeze them snug with the needle nose, then re-flux and solder them together. A good solder join will hold together under a mild tug BEFORE you solder it! A couple of general soldering (or as we called it, smoldering ) tips: Keep a slightly damp sponge with you, and wipe the iron after every use, then re-tin the tip of the iron with a little, a LITTLE solder. when solding or tinning, flux the wire first, then just touch the iron's tip with it's layer of solder to the wire. The solder will flow from the iron onto/into the wire. That's all it needs. Do NOT become one of the "The bigger the glob the better the job" crowd! If you need more solder to tin the wires or make the join, put it on the iron, don't hold the solder on the job until it melts. You get waaay too much solder that way. The wire's individual strands should be clearly visible after tinning or joining, and the join should be a pretty, shiney silver. If it's dull, or crystalized looking, it's a "cold solder join" and won't carry the current correctly, and may break easily. If you get a cold join, hit it with the flux and then touch the iron to it again, and it should clear right up. Remeber, flux and a clean, lightly tinned tip on your iron are your two greatest friends when soldering! A couple of quick wipes on the sponge will clean the tip of the irn, after each and every use. Finally, clean any flux residue off with a small, stiff nylon brush and alcohol. Flux is corrosive and will eventually eat through your nice join if you don't get it off before you heatshrink it. Use a melt-wall type heatshrink to keep the evil worlrd away from your joins, and there you have it. Soldering 101!

If it's good enough for the equipment in a multi-million dollar high-perfomance jet fighter, it's sure good enough for a Toyota, yes? Besides, take the time and effort to do it RIGHT, and you won't have to do it OVER!

Good Luck!
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Thanks for the tips on soldering...I am a self admitted idiot at the task, but am slowly improving with each project. Good info on how to properly and efficiently do a job is always welcomed reading to me. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

~Darin <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the tips man! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Well thanks for the tips AFTER I'm done <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" /> LOL!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> No big goobers on my splices, and I did clean the flux off, so I think I'm in good shape... I think... I hope... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

After all the help I've gotten off this forum, I'm just glad I could toss in a little info of my own. Most folks don't really know how to smolder properly, and it can be a huge help in a bad spot.

Glad I could help a little
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<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Finally got to test her out on the trail, and man!!! What a difference! I can actually crawl along on the trail now without the motor dying out. Prior to the fix, the motor would start to bog and die when crawling along on small rocks. Now, she just putt-putts along and stays running - SOOOOO much better!!! And the difference on the highway is stunning - hills I had to downshift to fourth for can now be done in fifth, granted I can't accelerate, but it will maintain the speed. I'm very thankful for the knowledge and information that all the users of this BBS and others contribute - cheers guys! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Here are some pics of the splices in question, just for reference sake.

This picture shows the two sets of injector splices, as they come from the factory:


After unraveling the tape covering the splices, VOILA!, your culprit is revealed!


You can see why my 4Runner kept cutting out on me! Follow 2ToyGuy's advice on soldering the splices back together, be sure to clean the flux off all the soldered joins, reseal with shrinkwrap and some good electrical tape or similar, and you're good to go! I checked all the other splices while I was in there and resoldered them for insurance sake - don't want to do this again anytime soon, ya know <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks sege for this excellent tech. I'm going to dig into mine soon too. I hope to find something like you did. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> to ya Bandit! Yeah, the hardest part is getting off the 'ole lazy bum and getting started. But once you're into it, it's a piece of cake. My frustration was going in blind - I like to know what I'm getting into. Guess that's why I'm not a professional mechanic! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> The injector splices are on the length of wire that spans the intake to the passenger side fender. That's the problem spot. There are a few more splices in the harness that sit on the intake, but those were in really good shape on my rig. Wish I took more pics, I was so hell bent on getting the job done!