Rear brake lights harness HOT wire?

[198four]

Hello, I'm hoping you guys can help. I have a 98 manual Explorer Sport V6 and want to add a cigarette lighter to the trunk area, right next to the back door lock switch, on the driver's side. I'll use it to plug in a power inverter there so I can use a laptop, cooler, radio, etc etc when going camping or to the shooting range.

Just have a question: which wire is positive (always hot) and negative from the wiring harness that goes to the brake lights? It runs on the passenger side as well.

Sorry for the stupid question but the repair manual I bought on Ebay is a joke, doesn't even have an "electrical" chapter (btw, stay away from those repair manuals that they email you, is just a bunch of PDF pages thrown together). I could open the wiring harness and splice wire by wire until finding them but don't want to cut into any wires unnecessarily. Google search didn't help.

So anybody has a 98 Sport wiring harness diagram? what color wires am I looking for?

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[drdoom]

For five bucks you can get a test light that will pierce the wire. Green & red LED shoes polarity. BTW that wire will never handle an inverter. You should run a decent sized fused cable back there and mount an inverter in the amp area.

 

[bobflood]

+1 om drdoom's comment. And ++1 on putying an in-line fuse on this dedicated wire. Great source for wiring diagrams:
Auto - Online Repair Info
http://search.ebscohost.com/
Login ID: rrcc
Login PW: rebsco
Select: Auto Repair Reference Center
Fill in: Find Your Vehicle
Follow prompts down to Wiring Diagrams.

 

[198four]

You should run a decent sized fused cable back there and mount an inverter in the amp area.

drdoom: duh! of course, it just didn't occur to me, I guess I was being lazy. probably easier too

Great source for wiring diagrams:
Auto - Online Repair Info
http://search.ebscohost.com/
Login ID: rrcc
Login PW: rebsco
Select: Auto Repair Reference Center
Fill in: Find Your Vehicle
Follow prompts down to Wiring Diagrams.

Thank you bobflood, great link!

 

[cwol97401]

Great source for wiring diagrams:
Auto - Online Repair Info
http://search.ebscohost.com/
Login ID: rrcc
Login PW: rebsco
Select: Auto Repair Reference Center
Fill in: Find Your Vehicle
Follow prompts down to Wiring Diagrams.

Bobflood, is the link above still active? Keeps giving game an error message.

 

[koda2000]

Bobflood, is the link above still active? Keeps giving game an error message.

The link is still active, but it appears they've changed the login/password. Too bad, it was really handy.

 

[cwol97401]

The link is still active, but it appears they've changed the login/password. Too bad, it was really handy.

The link is still active, but it appears they've changed the login/password. Too bad, it was really handy.

Yes it was. Thanks.

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/shop-manual.367969/
here you will find the new password at the bottom of the page.

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

or I could just post it
It has - try User ID Chattech and PW avenue.

 

[koda2000]

or I could just post it
It has - try User ID Chattech and PW avenue.

Cool! Thanks.

 

[cwol97401]

or I could just post it
It has - try User ID Chattech and PW avenue.[/QUOTE

Well, it seems that one is dead now too

 

[bobflood]

They keep changing the PW. Latest is "quarter" - Logon still chattech.