Did you know ?

[luc]

... That the power window switchs on GenII are designed to be lighted at night but that DC didn't wire the LED ?

If you remove the switchs and unplug the connectors,and look closlely,each metal prongs/tabs on the switch are numbered and #7 is ground and #6 is + for the LED.
I guess that the reason that DC didn't connected them is because the LED are green (Dodge Caravan!!!) instead of orange.
On mine I changed the LED to orange,pretty easy to do.
If you need more info,let me know.

Luc.
00GTS

 

[snowmann]

I did not knew that... very neat.

 

[MoparMan]

luc - how about some more info - where'd you get the LED? Got a part number? Can you post a photo?

Thanks

 

[ViperJoe]

Give us the step by step please!

 

[MHQC]

pics please. and how did you stumble onto this??

 

[luc]

Sorry guys,I don't know how to post pictures,but I can explain how to do it.
As for how I stumbled into it,it's very simple,if you look closely (in direct sunlight or with a flashlight) at the vet top of the switch,you can see a rectangular clear "window".

Knowing that the only logical reason for it would be to transmit light,I removed the switch and disconnected the electrical plugs and saw that some of the terminals were not used.
From there,with a very small flat screwdriver,I took the top(black part) off the base(white part),and.... voila, a green LED.

Changing the green LED to orange is a little more complicated,you have to unsolder the LED and get,either through Radio Shack or other electronic stores, 2 orange LED of the same size that work on 12V and solder them.

On mine,since I had a hard time finding the righ size in 12V,I just used a resistor on-line.

To wire them,you need to solder a thin (18/20 gauge) electical wire to each terminal (6 & 7),remember that LED are polarized, and run those wires through the opposite side of the unused cavities in the electrical plug.
Once it's done you can reconnect the plug(s) to the switch(s).

For wiring them,you need to tap in a ground wire and a 12+ that is only on with the lights.

For the ground,you can tap the cigar lighter ground which is next to it,and for the +,I taped into the radio circuit.

Like that,the light is only on when all the light are on and can also be dimmed.

Tomorow,when I am at work,I can give better info and may be do a drawing and fax it to some one that can scan it and post it.

If someone is in the Monterey area,and can take pictures,we could do an illustrated "how to".

Luc.

 

[MoparMan]

Great info - thanks. Looking forward to seeing the illustrations. What value resistor did you use with the new LED? Do you have part numbers for the resistors and LEDs?

 

[picflight]

Great info Luc. Would love to see a pic howto if anyone else does it.