Junkyard replacement passenger side sun visor - wrong connector

[geosnooker2000]

Picked up an unbroken unit at the U-Pull-It, got it home, undid my existing passenger sun visor, and wow. I though I pulled from the same year EB, but the electrical connector on my 99 is square, and the one I pulled from the junkyard is round. I guess I could just splice in the square connector onto the salvage part, but I'm not sure which wires go to which wires? Maybe it doesn't matter?

 

[geosnooker2000]

Upon further study, one that is a round connector has only one wire. My unit out of my '99 has 2 wires to a square connector.

 

[koda2000]

Well the only thing that would be connected to the wire(s) on the passenger side visor would be for the vanity mirror lights. This would require a 12V power wire and perhaps (but not necessarily) a ground wire.

If you only have one wire on the visor side it has to be for 12V power and the screws attaching the visor to the truck's metal body will provide the ground source. Ford's ground wires are usually solid black in color if that helps. If you have a VOM you can test for both power and ground, but a simple test light will tell you which wire is the power wire.

If cutting and splicing of these wires is necessary, be advised that the power wire to the visors is always hot. Disconnect your battery beforehand.

If your "new" visor only has one wire, try ignoring the ground wire. The mirror lights should work w/out the ground wire once the visor is attached.

 

[geosnooker2000]

Meh. both wires in the square connector are black. I destroyed the visor I brought home so I could understand how it works inside, and maybe I could understand how to fix the one in my truck. I ripped off all of the fabric, stuck a flat head screw driver in and split the visor open, and got the mirror unit out in one piece. I don't understand how it turns the lights on. It uses some spring-loaded curved metal to make it snap open and snap closed, but for the life of me, I could not see a circuit being connected. no metal changed condition from when the mirror was closed to when it was open.

But all of that doesn't matter. The fact is, you can not get to that unit to fix it without tearing up the visor. In short, if it stops working, either live with it, or buy a new one.

 

[Turdle]

Is there by chance a magnetic reed switch in the housing of the mirror?

 

[toypaseo]

might be some helpful info in this thread: How to: Homelink Visor Install

 

[koda2000]

might be some helpful info in this thread: How to: Homelink Visor Install

Yeah, I've replaced the driver's side visor in my daughter's Mountaineer to get the HomeLink buttons. It was plug and play.

OP - Come to think of it, I have a passenger side tan visor than came with the HomeLink visor I bought. I don't recall which plug it has, but I can go try to find it and check if you want. I think it has the square 2-wire plug. You're welcome to the visor if you want to pay the postage on it. In the mean time, if you have a test light, see if your visor plug is getting power. If you don't have a test light, you should and having a VOM is even better.