Since the day that I got my Sport Trac I hated the green lights in it! Now 2 years later I decided to change them out to blue.
This project cost me around $36 for the 13mm blue LED's, resistors and a piece of plexiglass (color # 2424) to go on the AC controls.
It took me about 2 weekends to finish. I am still waiting on the piece of plex to finish the AC unit and the time to tear the headlight
switch apart and replace the lamp in it. I tried to take some pictures along the way but forgot to take a few of certain components
that are really easy to figure out. I would not recommend this mod to anyone with out some electrical experience.
I would give this mod a 9 on a 1 to 10 scale! I will not tell you which resistors to change, I don't want to take the blame
for telling someone it was this one when it was that one. Sorry!
Sorry for the picture quality, cell phone! I will get some quality pictures of with everything on tonight.
First picture is of the stock shifter light. All I did was to cut the lamp socket wires about an inch from the socket,
removed the lamp and drilled out the socket just enough to hold a led tightly. I soldered the resistor to the led and then the 1" pieces
of stock wiring to that and fed the wires back through the socket and seat the led into the lamp holder. I ground down the top of the led a
little to diffuse the light some. Reinstall the led into the shifter and re connect the wires. If it doesn't light then you have the polarity
backwards. If pull the cover off the shifter indicator you will see a piece of white plastic. You need to pull this thin piece of plastic
off or it will still light up green. It is just the lens that makes the stock light green. Under the lens the plastic will be clear,
you need to diffuse this plastic with some fine sandpaper to help distribute the light more evenly.
The power window switches were fairly simple and come apart real easily. You have to change the resistor's out on the circuit boards for the
led's to get the correct voltage. The drivers side was a PIA as it had 2 circuit boards stacked together and the resistors were between the 2.
You have to desolder the 2 boards and a the prongs for the electrical connection's. Here's a picture ith the top board removed.
The first of the plastic blocks that has the electrical prongs on it has been removed.
Remove the other plastic block and now you can get to the resistors and change out the led's.
Almost all of the switches are built in the same manner as the power window switches. I did have a slight problem of
dimming with the heated seats switches and figure out that the traces on the circuit board for the led's must have been
to small to carry the stronger current. I hard wired them to them board with some wire by passing the traces on the board
and all works fine now.
The AC unit was easy. All I had to do was change out the led's as the resistor's were big enough to light the led's
While you have the faceplate off very carefully pry off the green plastic cover. There should be a small slit on the back side
and you can slide the tip of a knife into it and slowly pry it off. Save the old green cover, you can use it as a template to make the new one
with the piece of plexiglass that you bought. Just trace around it and cut it out, drill 2 holes for the buttons, then carefully glue it back in place.
The gauges, weren't to bad but I completely disassembled them in the fear that I would break the needles. Take extra care when removing the clear outer cover, It is very fragile
and can crack if you use to much pressure pushing on the tabs. I did eventually take the needles off, as that was the only way to take the gauges face off. Just twist the needles and
pull outwards and they will come off. Once you have the faces off you need to scrap the green paint off the back off them. This is time consuming and will kills your hands. I used an exacto
knife and slowly scraped it all away. Rinse them off in some water to make sure all the green dust is off. There are 8 lamps if I remember correctly you need four of them. The others
are used for the dummy light and turn signals. Remove the lamps, build up some solder on the face of the board through the little lamp holes. On the top inner 2 lamp holes the
positive side is on the top, and the lower outer 2 positive is on the bottom. Figure out how many led's and resistor's you want to use and solder the to the lamp holder connections
where you built the solder up. I think I used 10 led's total but I am not sure. I did it so fast that I don't remember. You may have to adjust the position of your led's to get the light
to be even or you will have hotspots. I did not face the led's towards the gauge face, instead I bent them so that they would light the void behind the face's.
Take your time and trace out the circuits on the boards to find the correct resistors that you need to replace.
I will try to answer any question the best that I can. Just give me time to reply I can bee slow at times!
I will post pictures with everything on later!!
Jimmy
This project cost me around $36 for the 13mm blue LED's, resistors and a piece of plexiglass (color # 2424) to go on the AC controls.
It took me about 2 weekends to finish. I am still waiting on the piece of plex to finish the AC unit and the time to tear the headlight
switch apart and replace the lamp in it. I tried to take some pictures along the way but forgot to take a few of certain components
that are really easy to figure out. I would not recommend this mod to anyone with out some electrical experience.
I would give this mod a 9 on a 1 to 10 scale! I will not tell you which resistors to change, I don't want to take the blame
for telling someone it was this one when it was that one. Sorry!
Sorry for the picture quality, cell phone! I will get some quality pictures of with everything on tonight.
First picture is of the stock shifter light. All I did was to cut the lamp socket wires about an inch from the socket,
removed the lamp and drilled out the socket just enough to hold a led tightly. I soldered the resistor to the led and then the 1" pieces
of stock wiring to that and fed the wires back through the socket and seat the led into the lamp holder. I ground down the top of the led a
little to diffuse the light some. Reinstall the led into the shifter and re connect the wires. If it doesn't light then you have the polarity
backwards. If pull the cover off the shifter indicator you will see a piece of white plastic. You need to pull this thin piece of plastic
off or it will still light up green. It is just the lens that makes the stock light green. Under the lens the plastic will be clear,
you need to diffuse this plastic with some fine sandpaper to help distribute the light more evenly.
The power window switches were fairly simple and come apart real easily. You have to change the resistor's out on the circuit boards for the
led's to get the correct voltage. The drivers side was a PIA as it had 2 circuit boards stacked together and the resistors were between the 2.
You have to desolder the 2 boards and a the prongs for the electrical connection's. Here's a picture ith the top board removed.
The first of the plastic blocks that has the electrical prongs on it has been removed.
Remove the other plastic block and now you can get to the resistors and change out the led's.
Almost all of the switches are built in the same manner as the power window switches. I did have a slight problem of
dimming with the heated seats switches and figure out that the traces on the circuit board for the led's must have been
to small to carry the stronger current. I hard wired them to them board with some wire by passing the traces on the board
and all works fine now.
The AC unit was easy. All I had to do was change out the led's as the resistor's were big enough to light the led's
While you have the faceplate off very carefully pry off the green plastic cover. There should be a small slit on the back side
and you can slide the tip of a knife into it and slowly pry it off. Save the old green cover, you can use it as a template to make the new one
with the piece of plexiglass that you bought. Just trace around it and cut it out, drill 2 holes for the buttons, then carefully glue it back in place.
The gauges, weren't to bad but I completely disassembled them in the fear that I would break the needles. Take extra care when removing the clear outer cover, It is very fragile
and can crack if you use to much pressure pushing on the tabs. I did eventually take the needles off, as that was the only way to take the gauges face off. Just twist the needles and
pull outwards and they will come off. Once you have the faces off you need to scrap the green paint off the back off them. This is time consuming and will kills your hands. I used an exacto
knife and slowly scraped it all away. Rinse them off in some water to make sure all the green dust is off. There are 8 lamps if I remember correctly you need four of them. The others
are used for the dummy light and turn signals. Remove the lamps, build up some solder on the face of the board through the little lamp holes. On the top inner 2 lamp holes the
positive side is on the top, and the lower outer 2 positive is on the bottom. Figure out how many led's and resistor's you want to use and solder the to the lamp holder connections
where you built the solder up. I think I used 10 led's total but I am not sure. I did it so fast that I don't remember. You may have to adjust the position of your led's to get the light
to be even or you will have hotspots. I did not face the led's towards the gauge face, instead I bent them so that they would light the void behind the face's.
Take your time and trace out the circuits on the boards to find the correct resistors that you need to replace.
I will try to answer any question the best that I can. Just give me time to reply I can bee slow at times!
I will post pictures with everything on later!!
Jimmy
