well just the other day I did this mod to My truck and Justin's(toreador4x4)

click here for how-to


little tip, John says to "frost" the tip of the LED, also do a few other methods to spread the light.. we did the "frost" first and found it did good BUT it was really bright compared to the rest of the dash lights..

so Justin had a good idea and here is the tip for the mod..

Paint the tip of the LED black while having the sides frosted.. it really dulls down the light out put and matches it well to the dash lights..


this mod was VERY easy to do, worst part is taking apart basically the whole dash to get to the switch.. being him and i have done this more times then we can count its not hard just time consuming.. the mod takes no time at all..

 

The back paint really makes this mod look alot more factory and gets rid of the "hot spot" in the parking light "light hole" in the dash.

This is also a good time to remove the gauge cluster and clean the backside of the glass and remove the pesky dust in the bottom (oh wait...not everyone on here has OCD...nevermind lol)

 

done mine like 3 times already HAHA

 

wow thought more people did this mod being like every ranger out there has the headlight switch bulb burnt out lol....

 

Mines burnt out, I just really don't care enough to fix it yet lol

 

Just fixed mine. I had a concave LED left over from my HVAC panel so I used that. It's completely flat on the top and provided relatively even light distribution. It's about the same brightness as the HVAC panel. But that's a given because it uses the same LED.

 

sounds good we just did his 4x4 bulb that one is a pain in the butt

 

If it's anything like the foglight bulb I hear you. I was going to but with my banana fingers I don't think it's going to happen. Plus I need to find a tiny LED for it.

And I wish I had a 4x4 switch to mod.

 

lol so true poor 2wd guys

 

Well hopefully by the dunes trip next year I'll be 3" higher with 33's, 4.56 gears, and a locker. That'll help a ton. But if I can find a rear ended 98+ Ranger with 4wd and a 3.0 my truck might just get a little interesting.

 

Is the part of the switch that is supposed to be lit up the circles that indicate off, park, and headlights? If so mine don't light up and I might have to do this mod.

 

yes, and where it says 2wd 4high and 4low

 

LOL! I have sand in mine from last May...

I know where the switch is, plus the bulbs have been burnt out for so long I wouldnt know what to do if it worked! lol

 

i do too lol and i got bored and was sick of it not working..

and for the $3 you spend to do it no big deal not a real wallet breaker...

 

I need to do this to my 4x4 swtich. It it really a PITA?

 

read the how-to the 4x4 is kinda a pain in the butt, its very doable tho..

head light is just so easy thats why the 4x4 one seems so hard lol....

 

Maybe your headlight switch was easy. Mine was the complete opposite. The led I used had resistors soldered directly to the leads. And they were bigger around than the holes in the 'bulb' holder. So I had to drill those out. Well the leads it had weren't long enough. Ok well grind down the holder a ways. Still not long enough.

Cut the leads off of the original bulb and solder to the existing leads so they're long enough. Well doing that with tiny wire and no third hand is a PITA!! But it's done and looks good.

 

it is a pita. but, i will say this...once you go through that first pita, when that led does burn out for some reason, it makes replaceing it really really easy. just heat the old solder up and take the old led out, then solder the new led in.

 

wtf... guys no need to solder at all...

especially on the head light..



see how it wraps around on the other side you cant see you have the "tail" on the other side. it is what makes contact with the cooper contact for the light.. so positive just wrap it and done..

then on the resistor side when you jam it down in the whole it makes enough contact. then just wrap it around like the + lead and it will contact the cooper on the switch.. thats it...

that little thing at the end of the wire you see it "clipping" into is nothing just something to hold the wire.. does nothing power wise

making the head light one seriously takes like 5 min tops.. takes longer for the paint to dry on the tip of the LED..

 

how about joining the diode to the resister??? I soldered all mine.


My diode wire size was significantly bigger than the resister wire size, so, i had to make up some where...because no contact can be made with two different sized leads.

 

you mean LED and Resister?

shove the Resister down the neg hole and thats it.. its such a tight fit there they have to be making contact...

 

If only I had taken pictures you'd understand what I mean.

The LED has resistors attached. The wires attached to the resistor didn't reach far enough to be looped around the black base piece so I soldered longer wires from the old bulb onto the LED so it was long enough to loop.

Explain it or am I going to have to tear it apart and take pictures? lol.

 

an led IS a diode! Light Emitting Diode!!! I used components...so seperate led and seperate resistors.

blah. evidently, there's different ways of doing this mod.

 

no i get what you did i was talking tho Shane here lol...

i know this i was just making sure we where talking about the same things lol.. got it?