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Link Build - Day 33

1999 Ford Ranger Trail-Runner 4-Link Build
Posted June 13 2007 10:02 AM by 4x4Link 
Filed under: Editorials, Offroad Parts

As the deadline draws near the list is finally getting shorter....


"Wiring is a tedious job, but somebody has to do it."

Day 33

As you can probably tell I spent the night of Day 33 working on getting the truck wired again. After working on all of this wiring I can tell that Ford did something right for once. The wiring harnesses on the rear of this truck are all separated into smaller sub-harnesses. For instance the tail light wire harness can be removed from the main harness making it easily worked on and replaced if it's damaged in an accident.

Now I know what you are wondering, why this all matters. Normally I would say it doesn't, but since I wanted an easy way to remove my bedsides with out dealing with all the wiring from the tail light, or having the light sockets left hanging, or dealing with a place to put bulbs. Now I can just pull the two plugs, leave the lights where they are and the bed sides come off, complete. I also wanted to do this because after years of abuse my tail light wiring was getting a little ragged. Turns out they don't like being ejected and swung by their wires into the side of the truck, or like being hit with tail gates. Go figure.

So I picked up a pair of 5 plug trailer wire extensions (I know, I thought the same thing, 5 plug... weird) and used them as the extensions/plugs for the lights. Before you say it, I don't want to hear it, have you ever tried to split off three wire looms and tape it up to look good? Didn't think so. Anyway, tail lights work great, plugs work great, now it is time to move on to rewiring the sensors that I need to make the truck drive again. Until tomorrow.

   Jason Gonderman
     Online Editor
 

Photo Captions

  1. Stock beat tail light sockets
  2. Newly wired tail light sockets
  3. New tail light plug
  4. New tail light plug unplugged
  5. Newly modified stock harness

stock tail light wiring
new tail light wiring
new tail light plug
new tail light plug
modified harness
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