For years I've had a set of side marker lights that I ordered from SuperBrightLEDs back in their early days (still available here: Rectangular LED Truck and Trailer Lights - 3-3/4” LED Side Clearance Lights - Pigtail Connector - Surface Mount - 12 LEDs | Super Bright LEDs ). They sat in my electrical box, forgotten until one of my front side marker lights burned out a couple weeks ago. When I pulled the lens off to replace the bulb, the whole housing/gasket assembly crumbled to dust. I remembered replacing it many years ago with an aftermarket. I think maybe about 5-6 years ago. Anyway the OEM Toyota assemblies are getting more scarce, and the aftermarket are garbage. Since I didn't want to spend the money for a new OEM part, I dug out my LED assemblies and set about getting them to work with my 62. First thing was that they're designed to ground through one of the mounting screws and therefore only have one lead; the hot lead.
If you look closely, the ground contact does have a solder pad on it (coated with a TON of flux). So I took some 20AWG wire, stripped about 3/8", tinned the wire and soldered it in place. Since it's set in plastic, I chose to go hot and fast so I set my soldering iron to 800* F. This was so it could get good solder contact and penetration while reducing the time that the heat would be able to transfer to the plastic and damage it. Worked pretty well. I had to do this for all four assemblies.
To keep the wires together I popped short pieces of heat shrink to them and then installed Weather Pack terminals and connectors. I finally invested in a high quality crimper and now the terminals go on like a breeze. I love these connectors for electrical jobs on my 62. Used them on all the mods I did on my old Plymouth too. I also didn't like the idea of just raw plastic sitting against body sheet metal, so I got some of the smallest vacuum line I could get from my local Napa, cut it lengthwise, and carefully placed it over the plastic lip of each assembly. This was a PITA, but I think in the long run will be worth it for keeping the elements out of the insides of the fenders and quarter panels.
Next step was to prepare the truck's wiring. I crimped the appropriate terminals onto the pigtails that were in place from the OEM assemblies (so should I ever want to put OEM assemblies back on in the future, it'd just be a matter of unplugging the Toyota connectors), and I don't know why, but I was sure to test the leads with my multimeter before putting the connectors in place. I'm glad I did, because the driver's side was the reverse of what it should have been, with power coming from the white wire and the green wire being the ground. I made sure to insert the terminals into the connectors appropriately. The great thing about Weather Pack connectors is that each terminal opening is labeled A, B, C, Etc. for easy location of the correct terminals. I always use A for hot and B for ground when working with 2-pole connectors, so I installed the vehicle-side connectors appropriately (don't mind the green tinge. I was working under the light of my Christmas lights at dusk).
Here's where I ran into a problem. The holes on the LED assemblies are 78mm apart and the holes in the OEM assemblies are about 85mm apart. Even when removing the plastic inserts, there still wasn't quite enough leeway to install the LEDs, so I had to take my Dremel and slightly elongate the hole that didn't have the ground lead. I was able to do this without affecting the appearance of the lens though. Even then it was still a tight fit, so I got new stainless M4x0.7x20mm screws, M4 and M6 fender washers and M4x0.7 nylock nuts so that there would be a good strong hold against the sheet metal. Reaching in with a 1/4" drive ratchet with a 7mm socket was a bit of a pain with my big old ham hands, but I managed to get them all installed and aligned right. Something else to watch for is the placement of the assembly of the center opening. With the vacuum line weatherstrip they're just barely wide enough to seal around the opening and protect the insides from the elements. If you look at my pic of the front assembly you can just barely see that it's not aligned just right and there's a tiny exposed gap. The rear is aligned right.
If you look closely, the ground contact does have a solder pad on it (coated with a TON of flux). So I took some 20AWG wire, stripped about 3/8", tinned the wire and soldered it in place. Since it's set in plastic, I chose to go hot and fast so I set my soldering iron to 800* F. This was so it could get good solder contact and penetration while reducing the time that the heat would be able to transfer to the plastic and damage it. Worked pretty well. I had to do this for all four assemblies.
To keep the wires together I popped short pieces of heat shrink to them and then installed Weather Pack terminals and connectors. I finally invested in a high quality crimper and now the terminals go on like a breeze. I love these connectors for electrical jobs on my 62. Used them on all the mods I did on my old Plymouth too. I also didn't like the idea of just raw plastic sitting against body sheet metal, so I got some of the smallest vacuum line I could get from my local Napa, cut it lengthwise, and carefully placed it over the plastic lip of each assembly. This was a PITA, but I think in the long run will be worth it for keeping the elements out of the insides of the fenders and quarter panels.
Next step was to prepare the truck's wiring. I crimped the appropriate terminals onto the pigtails that were in place from the OEM assemblies (so should I ever want to put OEM assemblies back on in the future, it'd just be a matter of unplugging the Toyota connectors), and I don't know why, but I was sure to test the leads with my multimeter before putting the connectors in place. I'm glad I did, because the driver's side was the reverse of what it should have been, with power coming from the white wire and the green wire being the ground. I made sure to insert the terminals into the connectors appropriately. The great thing about Weather Pack connectors is that each terminal opening is labeled A, B, C, Etc. for easy location of the correct terminals. I always use A for hot and B for ground when working with 2-pole connectors, so I installed the vehicle-side connectors appropriately (don't mind the green tinge. I was working under the light of my Christmas lights at dusk).
Here's where I ran into a problem. The holes on the LED assemblies are 78mm apart and the holes in the OEM assemblies are about 85mm apart. Even when removing the plastic inserts, there still wasn't quite enough leeway to install the LEDs, so I had to take my Dremel and slightly elongate the hole that didn't have the ground lead. I was able to do this without affecting the appearance of the lens though. Even then it was still a tight fit, so I got new stainless M4x0.7x20mm screws, M4 and M6 fender washers and M4x0.7 nylock nuts so that there would be a good strong hold against the sheet metal. Reaching in with a 1/4" drive ratchet with a 7mm socket was a bit of a pain with my big old ham hands, but I managed to get them all installed and aligned right. Something else to watch for is the placement of the assembly of the center opening. With the vacuum line weatherstrip they're just barely wide enough to seal around the opening and protect the insides from the elements. If you look at my pic of the front assembly you can just barely see that it's not aligned just right and there's a tiny exposed gap. The rear is aligned right.
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