Question for those of you hooking up the signals and running lights, are you tying in under the dash or out at the headlight/turn signal. Getting my harnesses made up and need to know the length

 

I took the parking light lead off the light switch connector and the turn signal leads off the turn signal connector wiring. The turn signal wiring comes down on the left side of the steering column (I believe afmedic posted a picture of it in his link). I removed my dash which requires removing the radio and that gave me easy access for running the wires.
The flexible conduit to the doors is the most difficult part of the job. I found that unhooking it from the cab and compressing it, while using a stiff piece of wire to help feed the wiring through, helped a lot.

 

Thanks, I got the pass side installed today. I did read about the difficulty pulling the wires through the boot but being a sparky by trade I had a trick up my sleeve which I will share. Harbor freight sells these flexible fish tapes for $7.99, I bought one a few years ago and it has turned out to be one of the best things I ever bought from Harbor Freight. It has a spring leader about 8 inches long, I wiggled it in there from the door side and it popped out under the glove box on the first try. Taped on my wires with my ends already crimped and soldered and pulled them thru.....boom, all of five minutes.

I am in the process of swapping the ebay mirrors out for the 1A Auto ones and I will report back soon with pics and differences between the two. I am also taking the opportunity to install Jimmy Jammers while the doors are opened up.

crimped and soldered


HF fish tape...easy peasy


all secured with loom and zip ties

 

I got my 1-A Auto mirrors wired up but something doesn't make sense. My upper light is visible only from the rear and the side of the truck (it has a cut-off inside the lens to keep the light from showing all the way around to the front) and it is dimmer than the lower light telling me that this is the running/parking light. My lower light is brighter and is visible from both the front and rear, telling me that this is the turn signal. Are you sure you got this right? Or maybe the lights on the ebay mirrors are reverse of the 1-A mirrors?

 

These were my connections with the Ebay ones....

Though I tried hooking up both the top and bottom to just my running lights as I wasn't going to use the blinker portion of the mirror. Did not work. I tried to combine the wires inside the mirror. Im actually thinking I was not getting a good contact inside the mirror due to the wires being like a 20ga.

 

Thanks for the tip. Reps sent!

 

The colors on mine didn't match but I could match them up by using the photo. Different manufacturers will use different colors often.

 

I spoke a little too soon. The passenger side was a breeze but the driver's side.....welll not so easy. It is not a straight shot into the knee area from the door boot, and there is a lot of stuff in the way. I messed with it for 45 min, I had to unhook the boot from the truck side then I could push my fingers in with my left hand to meet my right hand which was wedged under the dash, and pass a pull wire thru which I hooked the wires to and pulled thru.

 

Jim it looks like you are correct, the signal is on top and the side marker on the bottom. I found this video from 1-A Auto. I guess the signal is designed to be seen clearly from the rear or side but not the front, and the side marker is designed to be seen mostly from the ......side. Makes sense now. I thought the upper light was dimmer until I walked beak behind the truck, wow this will make lane changing much easier!

 

Glad you got it worked out. I should have stated that the driver's side wiring was much more difficult than the passenger's side. The emergency brake, fuse box, GEM, etc. are all in the way.
Yes, I agree they make lane changes a bit safer and easier.
I upgraded to amber LED bulbs after I got the ebay mirrors installed because they seemed too dim compared to the rest of the truck lights. Much better now.

 

Just finished my install of the 1-A Auto mirrors to replace the ebay ones I put on in April. I decided I wanted the 1-A auto mirrors and my buddy offered to buy the ebay ones from me so I am only out $20, not counting labor. I have a few comparisons and notes, along with a few pics. I am not going to bash the ebay mirrors, they are good mirrors, I am just going to point out a few differences I observed. It's just that I like to always put the best I can find and afford on my truck. If this had been my work van you see there in the background I couldn't have cared less.

I did the complete wiring for the new mirrors and connected the signals and running lights but coiled the wires to the heat up and zip tied them under the dash, in my 49 years living in the desert not once have I needed a heated mirror. I used the Ford Wedgelock connector pins and crimped and soldered them. I used 18 gauge wire, I couldn't see using bigger wire than the factory used and it fits the pins real nice. I wrapped all the wires in 3/8" loom for protection, especially where they pass thru the driver's side door, there is a sharp turn there and the wires lay against the metal opening. I ran everything first to the headlight switch, where I tapped the brown wire for the running lights, then sent the turn signal wires behind the lower dash pad in a separate loom and up to the small harness on top of the steering column right by the hazard light button.Thanks to brian42 and his links in post #71 I easily located the correct wires for my turn signals and tapped them in. Please note the link provided by brian42 is for a 2003MY, and mine is a 2002MY which is the same electrically. 99-01 is probably different since the major electrical changes began with MY2002. One thing to note, if you use the suitcase taps like I did, be sure to take that one on the green wire and roll it back and tuck it behind the bundle. If you leave it where I have it in the picture it will be in the way of the plastic screw leg that sticks into that hole below and you won't be able to get the top of the steering column shroud to line up.

OK so here's the differences: Right out of the box I noticed the 1-A mirrors looked bigger. Got out the tape measure, and found the 1-A mirrors slightly taller with the viewing area of the upper mirror about 3/4" taller than the ebay mirrors. This is partly due to the slightly taller body and partly to the design which uses no plastic divider between the upper and lower glass like the ebay mirror uses. The plastic divider cuts into the space resulting in a smaller piece of glass. The lower fisheye mirrors are identical.

The next thing I noticed was that the 1-A mirrors fit right on with no modifications, only minutes to install. One hiccup to note, the 1-A mirrors have 3 nuts threaded onto 3 of the studs and a plastic protector on one of the lower ones. When I unpacked mine I thought a nut was missing because the 4th one is screwed all the way down and is hidden in the thick weather pad. I tried to bolt the mirror up using a nut from the old mirror and it wouldn't seat all the way, I was starting to think these mirrors would need modifications too till I finally figured it out. They bolted up very tight to the doors with no gap like I had on the ebay mirrors. The padding is also about twice as thick on the 1-A mirrors.

The lens for the lights on the 1-A mirrors is clear instead of smoked, and the lights are very bright, no complaints there.

The sliding action on the 1-A mirrors is smoother, and they don't make that scary cracking sound when folding them in.

Again I am not bashing the ebay mirrors, I still think they are good mirrors, but I think the 1-A mirrors are better and I couldn't be happier with them. Pics below.


1-A glass 7.75"


ebay mirror about 12.5" tall, 1-A mirror almost 13"


ebay glass 7"


about 3/4" more viewing area on the 1-A


side by side comparison


this is a mockup using the ebay mirror to show how the last nut was hidden on the 1-A mirror, it was buried in the thick padding and I thought it bwas missing.


the padding is thick


tuck this connector behind the bundle


the lights are nice and bright


highly visible turn signal

 

For some reason I ended up with two identical pics and missed this one of the total length of the 1-A mirror, about 3/8" taller than the ebay

 

Thanks for the review. Helps us out who might want to buy next. Been looking at the 1A mirrors so If I buy, I'll probably go that way. Thank you.

 

BigB56, how does either mirror (eBay and 1A) compare with the Velvac 2020's that you have on your G3500 cutaway?

 

The Velvacs have superior viewing and I like the one arm swing away but they are strictly manual. Shortly after I bought the van new, the left mirror came apart at the pivot and fell off. Chevy wanted $600 for a new one, I contacted Velvac who had them for $350 each but when I told them what happened they sent me one for $140. No question though the large viewing area makes lane changes and backing up easy, the ones on the Ford don't have as much viewing area but they will get the job done.