1993-1997 Tail Light Upgrade With 2001-2005 Tail Lights

I got some 2001-2005/06 Ford Ranger taillights off eBay for my 1997 ranger.  I was told the newer tails were all the same design.

The tails fit fine, except they switched to a 2 bulb setup in 1998. In the 1998-2000 tail lights there is a hole that can be punched out, and the third bulb on the 1993-1997 Rangers inserted. On my new style tails there was no such hole. I got out my hole drill bits and cut a hole in the new taillights. I filed grooves in to the side of the hole to fit the bulb sockets.

The bulb sockets fit in there perfectly, but since they shared the same reflective chamber as the tail/brake, the signal was barely visible day or night. They were not visible at all with the brakes on.

THIS WILL TELL YOU HOW TO MAKE THE BRAKE/TURN/TAILS RUN ON ONE DUAL FILAMENT BULB. THE TAIL LIGHT IS THE MINOR FILAMENT, AND THE BRAKE/TURN SHARE THE MAJOR FILAMENT. WHEN TURN SIGNAL IS APPLIED THE MAJOR FILAMENT BLINKS, IF BRAKE ARE ALSO APPLIED THE MAJOR FILAMENT ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE STAYS CONSTANT.

I bought a trailer converter kit from Hopkins Mfg.. The real purpose of it is to be able to hook up a vehicle with separate turn signals to a conventional trailer lighting system.

http://www.hopkinsmfg.com/38925.html

Go to the rear of your truck and up under the bed by the bumper, there is a connector that connects the rear light harness to the lead from the front of the truck.

Disconnect that and cut off the female end leaving about 3-4 inches so you can splice. Cut both ends of the converter wiring to 6/". It may be helpful to pop out the little plastic rivets holding the wiring up so you can work on it easier.

Connect wires as follows:
Truck -> converter
Black -> White (ground)
Brown -> Brown (Tail/Parking)
Green -> Red (Brakes)
Orange w/ blue stripe -> Green (Right signal)
Green w/ orange stripe -> Yellow (Left signal)

You also need to run an extension wire for the reverse lights, independent of the converter. use a section of extra wire you cut off the converter ends, and splice in between the Black w/ pink stripe wires.

After that is complete, you then have to splice the opposite side of the converter into the rear harness.

There are 4 outputs:
Converter -> Truck
White -> Black (ground)
Brown-> Brown (tails)
Green -> Green (Right turn/stop) THIS WILL BE EXPLAINED BELOW!
Yellow - Green (left turn/stop) SAME MESSAGE AS ABOVE!

So you will see 2 of a few wires lower in the harness, apparently the shared functions, like brake, reverse, tail run to one side and run back.. Splice the Green wire from the converter into the Green wire you cut when you chopped off the harness (the harness end, not the connector end which you already spliced!).

Then the green wire which is running back from the right side, cut that and splice the Yellow wire from the converter into the side of the wire that runs to the left. The idea is, the brake output runs through the turn signal wire son the converter, but needs to run through the brake light wires on the truck, since that's where the dual filament bulb is connected to.

All done with the wiring! You can chop off the old turn signal bulb holders, then cap those wires and any unused wires so you don't get confused in the future. use some plastic wire shielding stuff, electrical tape it up or use heat shrink on the splices. this is to make sure all the wiring is water proof.. Secure the converter and wiring with zip ties, plastic pop rivets etc.

NOTE: I used all butt connectors for the splicing in this job.

The last step which you may or may not need to do is replace your flasher relay with a heavy duty trailering one. I had to, because my turn signals would flash rapidly when the brakes were applied at the same time.. it was like $12 at Autozone.

Before:

After: