How to do Door Switch LED Swap with pics

[panda24619]

No worries!! I do my best not to let pain slow me down. It hurt quite a bit when I got hit since I got kicked in the nose and the eye, but its all better now, just a nice little throbbing pain Anyway, I like the color of the red, but I chose the blue because I think it will be more calming when driving in the dark, rather than the red, and I just like blue in general, hopefully they turn out to be a dark blue, but anything is better than my dim green lights on there now!

agreed. i wanna do this now. but wanna finish my other plans first before i go on to another thing. haha

 

[GAINMOB]

yeah...i'm doing this...this summer

 

[Racenut]

I think I'm gonna pic up some used switches from the wrecking yard next time im in El Paso that way I can take my time doing this. When you have 2 kids you get interupted A LOT!

When you get the Blue LED'S in post some pics, I am undicided if I want to go Red to match my truck or if I want to go with the Blue and if possible could you post up a couple more pics of the red from a distance so we can see what they will look like. Thanks!

 

[GAINMOB]

yeah i gotta do this...

 

[99 Expy]

I started on my front driver's side door switch a little bit ago, and my switch is different than the ones I've seen, so I had to find which leads were positive and negative, but I have 2 of the 8 bulbs in, and powered it by a 9 volt battery to test and they are very bright. Here is a picture of what 2 LED bulbs look like, hopefully, I will be able to get the rest of them done here shortly.

 

[99 Expy]

I got my window switches done for my drivers side last night. My door switch was different than the one in the how-to I watched and I couldn't find one of mine, so I just had to find where the pos and neg leads go, then it was easy. The pre-99 look like this

http://www.f150online.com/forums/members/thejake1989-albums-led-pics-picture49129-positive2.jpg

as shown in this article http://www.f150online.com/forums/articles-how-tos/399952-how-door-switch-led-swap.html

The 99 and newer look like this

I haven't done one of the pre-99, but I think that mine is easier, since you just have to cut the old bulbs out, and solder the new bulbs in. When I took the old bulbs out, I used my dremel and reamed out the hole and made it a little deeper, so that the LED bulbs were at the same depth as the stock bulbs. I bought extra bulbs, so I just used one bulb to test out and make sure it would fit before hand.

After the bulbs all fit, you can place in the new bulbs by bending the leads and putting them in the holder. Three of the four sets of bulbs were wired in series, and the other set was wired individually for each bulb.

The negative leads go to the resistors.


After I got all the bulbs put in and soldered, I tested them with a 9 volt battery


Since they worked, I put it back together and got it in the truck, but had a hard time getting a still picture


The LEDs are very much brighter than the old dim green lights, and I think they look great. They are like blue neons. I am going to try to figure something out so that I don't get the glow from outside of the switches.

I will finish the rest of the bulbs as I get time, and I will try to get some more info on how to do the steering wheel lights, and will probably do them next, just because I can and I will try to get a better pic of the red LED that I have in there now for you guys too.

ENJOY!!!

 

[Racenut]

Looks great man those things are bright as hell! If you could get pics from a little bit of a distance that would be awsome so that everyone can see a little better what they look like.

 

[99 Expy]

I will try to get some better pictures tonight. The lights are bright enough that you can see them in the daylight, and in the dark, they reflect off of the door handle and door itself because it is that bright. I am working on the steering wheel lights now, so that will pry be my next post.

 

[99 Expy]

Hey guys, I am having troubles with my steering wheel lights. I posted in the electronic section to see if anyone has a wiring diagram I could look at. As far as I have found, I have only seen one write up for this swap, and as far as I know, the guy hasn't gotten it to work yet, so I am trying different things to make mine work. Right now, I'm just working on the right switch. Once I found where the positive and negative leads go, I got it all hooked up again without the switches put together, just the bulbs showing. When I plugged it in, one of the bulbs turned on with the switch on, but only dim. When I turned the lights on, both bulbs came on. I then turned the lights off, and grounded the light that was on to the steering wheel and it turned off. My problem was that when I turned the lights back on, they both lit up, then the other bulb exploded. The thread of the other guy that did this had the same problem of one bulb staying on when the lights were off. I am sure I will figure the problem out shortly, at least I have extra bulbs, but I wasn't planning on them exploding in my face though lol.

 

[GAINMOB]

ok...im not that good...ok...im not good...anyone wanna hook me up after they get theirs done?