The absence of remote locking on the Landcruiser has been a pain, earning my paintwork a few more key scratches too, so it was past time for action. I got on eBay, hunted down a bargain new Clifford alarm and spent this weekend fitting it.
Alarms are funny and unfunny at the same time. False alarms are not funny, the need for anti-theft is very unfunny, but still being fascinated by being able to lock a car using radio transmission, and liking the associated flashy lights and blippy noises at 41 years old is quite amusing I suppose.
I started looking for this alarm as I was trying to fix the radio aerial – made sense at the time. Pre-’93 Landcruisers have a very fine splined gear on the aerial motor, so the replacement mast I bought wouldn’t fit. To discover this, it all had to come out, which involved ripping the dash on the passengers side. As I also had to tear down the dash on the drivers side to get the clocks out for another job (long story), I figured I may as well get stuck into the lot. As I had it all apart, I bought some Hella fog lights for it too – will make fitting the switch easier…
I’ll save the details of the fitting (where what how) as it kind of goes against the key ‘security’ point, but I am really delighted with it. The system is compact and really lovely quality – a joy to install. Think I will get one for the 911 also, as I am fitting remote locking into that as well. The onboard immobiliser works a treat – took some setting up but is very slick. Might fit some sat nav to it now too.
Taking the dash to bits exposed three old alarm systems , all of which had to come out. I filled a bucket with scrap alarms and wiring. Some of the installation was really lousy, wires soldered into wires covered in cheap tape which was all falling apart – more than one serious fire hazard. The fuseboxes were a mess too, so it was great to get all that junk cleaned out of the truck.
Here’s a few pics of astonishingly crap wiring by previous owners, almost art in terms of their hamfisted laziness. This is what the lighting loom from the steering column looked like – note the three different coloured sections inserted into the flasher circuit:
Next we have the back of the interior fusebox – what a state:
Dash out (I love these kind of pictures – all that potential!):
Finally, bare wiring off the back of the ignition switch – high current and no insulation – wtf?!
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It gets worse – I just bought a load of GPS and Bluetooth gear for it on eBay!