Tail light rewire how-to anyone?

get an sequential wire kit.

lmmmmm said:

get an sequential wire kit.

Click to expand...

That is probably the best advice anyone could give you, and you can pick those up at Autozone or just about any parts store.

I've done this mod on my '96 and I did it for my '05 as well. I think the tail lights look a lot better if all of them operate as both brake and directionals.
It's relatively easy to do. What you need to do is replace the inboard lamp sockets with ones that have the extra pin for the brake/directional signal. You will find that the bulbs actually have the two filaments in them already. You can get yourself a single socket, remove the pins and insert them into the stock sockets, but this is kind of a pain.

What I did was a little more expensive, but not much. Get a tailight wiring harness (either right hand or left hand) from your Ford dealer. I think the cost was around $40. It includes the wiring, plug, and three sockets. In other words, the whole wiring set for one side. Cut out the two sockets that have three wires connected and use them to replace the stock inboard sockets that have only two connectors. Leave yourself about 12" of wire. You can pretty much figure out the connections. Make them the same as the other stock connectors. I think the color codes will be the same. My advice is to solder the connections and cover them with electrical tape.

The hardest part (for me) was getting all the trunk liner parts out so I could get access to the lamp housings. And, figuring out how to open those tricky little connectors. You need to disconnect the tail lamp connectors so you can take out the whole assembly and work on it at the bench.

Take your time, be careful to check the wiring with a multimeter, and I think you will like the result.

No problem. There are three types of gizmos that hold the liner in place. The ones right in front of you near the trunk latch need the center section to be pried up with maybe two screw drivers one on each side. Or if you're lucky that thing will pop up allowing you to take the whole thing out. The upper parts of the liner that are molded (nearest the tail lights) are held in by what looks like giant plastic screw heads. They need a Torx driver to remove them. Then there are about 6 or 8 trim pins that really need to be removed using a trim tool (about $5 at Autozone). They are barbed and will give you a fight.

As I recall, you won't need to remove the back part of the liner (the part closest to the back seat). You can take off the front part, loosen up the sides and get you hands in there to remove the nuts holding the tail lights in. There are four of them I think. They may be 3/8", but I'm really not sure. What helps is a ratchet box wrench you can get around the nut and loosen it without removing the tool.

OK, when you get the tail lights loose you will see that they are connected with a pigtail and a connector that has to be removed. It's a tricky connector, maybe you can figure out how to unlock it. I may try to post a picture. At this point you are more than halfway done. The wiring is straight forward. Just wire the inboard lamps in the same way as the others. Check for voltages with a multimeter. Solder the connections to make sure they don't come loose and wrap them with 3M electrical tape. Reverse the process to get everything back in there.

Good Luck

Praise be his name. I wish every post would get answered as fast and as accurate as this one. I don't even want to do the mod, personal opinion, but it is nice to ask and be answered. God Bless this mess.

CDC Sequentials

WallDiver77 said:

Thank you for your effort! Your detail is great! Even I can follow these directions! ha!

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Sir you may have already look at this, but this is what I did to my 07 GT and love it. http://www.classicdesignconcepts.com/catalog/itemdisplay/635.html They will send you brand new harness's that plug directly into your stock connector's. Each one has its own sequential circuitry and you just pull the stock harness's out, pull the stock bulbs, and plug them into the CDC harness's. You dont have to send your stock harness's in for exchange you keep them. The whole operation took me 20 minutes. You will have all six brake lights come on after they sequence one time from the inside out. This happans quickly, and looks very cool and also grabs attention to your stopping.

When you turn left or right, the lights will sequence from the inside out leaving no dought your turning, plus its great fun to show to other GTs while passing!

Emergency flashers too flash from the inside out, and are very attention getting.

I will take a short video and email it to you if you want to see them in action.

Good luck sir.

WallDiver77, I noticed in your sig that you have the Shaker 1000. It will make your life alot easier if you remove the sub box before trying to tackle the passenger side light removal. I didn't remove mine and it took me about 45 minutes of curse words and scraped hands to thread 2 of the 3 nuts for the light housing off and then back on...never once dropped one so that was a plus. If I have to take that side out again for some reason, I will surely move the sub box!!!!!

CDC is the only way to go, I had my kit 3 weeks before the car was built.

You'll be much more satisfied with the CDC Sequentials, I've had them since 10/2004 on my 05 Mustang GT. If you're going to mess with a rewire go ahead and go first class....