Tow Mirrors (part 2)

I’ve been loving the new mirrors and the increased rear view. As promised, here’s the write up on getting the marker lights and turn signals working.

The later 2001 Excursions had turn signals and marker lights mounted in the tow mirrors, but mine was built before that change made it to the assembly line.

I could have just cut the two needed wires out of the mirror harness and connected them to the truck, but I wanted to make the install as clean as possible. I also wanted to be able to sell these mirrors if I ever decide to upgrade again. I’m adding a third connector to the pigtail and that connector will plug into the truck.

I needed these pins for the rectangular plug that plugs into the mirror.

For the other end of the pigtail, I decided to go with DT connector. The downside of this style connector is that I had to purchase a specific crimping tool. That being said, the crimps are fast, secure, and consistent.

Did some Google searching to find a pin-out diagram of the mirror. Then I took my multimeter to the mirror to verify what I found online. The two lights share a common ground with the defroster circuit, so I only need to add two wires.

I ran wires from the doors, through the rubber boots into the truck, and up into the dash.

The marker lights I tied into the brown wire behind the headlamp switch. The turn signals I tied into the turn signals behind the instrument cluster.

Do yourself a favor and buy the radio removal tools. I spent far too much time struggling futilely with homemade tools. Finally went to AutoZone and spent $10 for the tools and the radio was out in less than five minutes.

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