John
03-21-2008, 02:14 AM
But now you need to do your door lock and window switches to match. :D
Go from this:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1494.jpg
To this:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1500.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1499.jpg
I have been working on mine.
What you need to do it.
3mm leds. You need one for each switch. (i only needed 5)
small screwdriver
soldering iron
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1491.jpg
and your favorite drink, normally i would have a beer but i needed all the coordination i can get for this
The first step is to take your switches out of the truck. Then take the plastic cover off the switch box. Once that is off, you need to remove the white back panel off the switch assembly. Then simply lift the board out of the black piece. Do not turn that black piece over. Leave the switches facing down. They have copper tabs in the toggles and they could fall out and you might lose them.
Once the board is out this is what it will look like.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1486.jpg
You need to find where the leds come through on the back of the board. I marked which side was positive and negative. Now I tested them to find out what side was positive and negative. It was printed on the board by a diode symbol, but I didnt notice that at first.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1490.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1488.jpg
Next you need to desolder the leds that are in the board. While you heat them with your iron, you need to bend the contacts back up into the vertical position so you can push the led out of the board. Then its just a matter of inserting the new led and resoldering it back in and clipping off of the excess.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1492.jpg
Now one little problem. The led behind the switch with the auto down feature is a surface mount led. that poses a problem because the led does not go down through the board so you can not reach the contacts and desolder them. So my novel solution was to drill out the led from the back side and simply slide in a new one and wire it in parallel with the other led using the side of the board that I can actually work on.
See what I mean:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1497.jpg
Another piece of advice is to sand the tip of the led some and then color it with a black sharpie. This is because the new blue leds are so bright they are almost annoying. They are still bright even after doing that but not annoying. I didnt do that to the one under the auto down button because I wanted it to light up a little brighter than stock.
Go from this:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1494.jpg
To this:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1500.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1499.jpg
I have been working on mine.
What you need to do it.
3mm leds. You need one for each switch. (i only needed 5)
small screwdriver
soldering iron
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1491.jpg
and your favorite drink, normally i would have a beer but i needed all the coordination i can get for this
The first step is to take your switches out of the truck. Then take the plastic cover off the switch box. Once that is off, you need to remove the white back panel off the switch assembly. Then simply lift the board out of the black piece. Do not turn that black piece over. Leave the switches facing down. They have copper tabs in the toggles and they could fall out and you might lose them.
Once the board is out this is what it will look like.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1486.jpg
You need to find where the leds come through on the back of the board. I marked which side was positive and negative. Now I tested them to find out what side was positive and negative. It was printed on the board by a diode symbol, but I didnt notice that at first.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1490.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1488.jpg
Next you need to desolder the leds that are in the board. While you heat them with your iron, you need to bend the contacts back up into the vertical position so you can push the led out of the board. Then its just a matter of inserting the new led and resoldering it back in and clipping off of the excess.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1492.jpg
Now one little problem. The led behind the switch with the auto down feature is a surface mount led. that poses a problem because the led does not go down through the board so you can not reach the contacts and desolder them. So my novel solution was to drill out the led from the back side and simply slide in a new one and wire it in parallel with the other led using the side of the board that I can actually work on.
See what I mean:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f357/ucimaplaya2/CIMG1497.jpg
Another piece of advice is to sand the tip of the led some and then color it with a black sharpie. This is because the new blue leds are so bright they are almost annoying. They are still bright even after doing that but not annoying. I didnt do that to the one under the auto down button because I wanted it to light up a little brighter than stock.