Just curious if anyone has any experience installing rooftop clearance lights? Wondering about running the wiring to them, and physically installing them.

1993 F-150

 

It's a piece of cake, I install them as part of my job.

Lower the headliner
Outside, place lights where you want them
Mark the roof with a felt tip pen where they will go
Look inside the lights to see where the wire will come out (towards the front or rear of the bottom)
Drill a hole for each wire
Put a grommet in each wire hole
Silicone the wire holes (unless the directions say NOT to, some gaskets do not react well to silicone)
Screw them down to roof
Clean off all shavings from drilling(will rust on roof) and felt pen marks will come off with windex (if you use a "flair" pen)
Inside connect all positive wires together and route down the left windshield post molding
Connect all the negative wires together and ground them to a support on the roof (not through the roof, usually there is a crossbar support)
Use a test light and check for your parking light circuit at either the switch or just go out to one of the parking lights and test for the positive wire
Run your positive wire from the clearence lights to that wire and splice in

I soder and heat shrink tube all wires. Do not us scotchlocks (plastic wire taps) after a year or two they have been known to lose connection, and you dont want to have to pull down the headliner to fix one.

 

how would you go about doing the lights in a 85 like mine that has no head liner just a second skin ?

i have though about the lights as well
thanks
Jc

 

What do you mean by second skin?

 

well the truck has the outer metal shell that is only visable out side and through the dome light hole

then the inner sheet of metal is about 1/2" or 3/4" down from the outer steel roof and its what the dome is mounted to

wish i had my digi cam here i would snap a picture for ya

Joe

 

Sounds like you have a double steel roof. It would be harder but it is possible to install the lights. The procedure is the same, except for the wiring.

If it were me installing them I would first remove the dome light and see if there is anything blocking my installation, use a straightened out coat hanger, and just sweep it from the dome light access hole to where you expect the lights will be.

Then if there is nothing in the way, fish a wire from the dome light hole, down one of the pillars to whatever access hole exists(see where the dome wire goes). The easiest way is to use an electrician's "fish", you can get it at home depot. I use an old snow plow cable pulled out of the sheathing and bent into a small loop in the end, other installers I know use an old speedometer cable and tape the wire on the end. Anyway whatever you use it must be flexible so it can flow with the bends in the vehicle. Fish it down from the dome light hole down to the access hole down, attach a length of wire to it, I usually strip the end of the wire and stick it through the loop in the end of my fish and soder it to itself so that it doesn't come loose halfway back. And pull it up to the dome light.

Then I would drill my holes for the lights, and fish 2 wires from the dome light access to each hole( easiest way is to go from the outside hole to the dome light with the fish and pull the wire out through the roof).

Connect all the positive wires together along with the wire fished up the pilar. Connect all the grounds together and ground somewhere around the access hole area that will be covered by the dome light. NOTE : if there is nowhere to ground this wire where it will be hidden, then 2 wires have to be fished up the pilar during that step, one for positive connection and one for the ground.

The rest of the installation is the same.

 

thanks for the info
Joe

 

I'm a complete newbie, could someone explain in more detail how to find the wire and splice in?

 

Most Fords use brown as the color wire for the running lights. You could find this on the light switch.