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Dodge tow mirror wiring question

SnowDrift

SnowDrift

Ultra Conservative. ULTRA!
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Thanks to Leroy, I have a set of power Dodge tow mirrors on hand. :thumbsup: I took the corner panels off the doors tonight to start to look at the wiring before I get into the mounting.

I've looked through these two threads:

http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/showthread.php?10702-Trailer-tow-mirrors-(DIY)

http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/sh...nstall-98-01-Dodge-towing-mirrors-on-a-GMT400

I read about the switch getting fried from wrong wires being installed and want to try to get this right, so I'm not buying a new switch, myself. My '95 wires function as follows:

LH mirror wiring from truck below

Blue - Left
Black1 - Up/Right
Black2 - Up/Right
Green - Down

RH mirror wiring from truck below

Gray - Left
Red1 - Up/Right
Red2 - Up/Right
Purple - Down

Do the two blacks get combined as well as the two reds get combined? As someone mentioned before, the Dodge mirrors are a 3 wire system, so what wires go with what?

1999GMC mentioned making the connection without cutting either harness, so I'm going to do my best to do this, as well. The wiring in my door is barely accessible, though. I sure don't seem to have any extra length in the door.
 
I really need to make better notes. I'm sorry man, I could have made this so easy for you if I would have wrote this crap down. I'll look around and see if I can find my wiring diag. I had when I did it.
 
Ah, no worries. I'm not sure why the photos are gone from Great White's post. That would have helped tremendously. I may put 12v to each terminal on the mirror, if necessary to check it out, hoping I won't burn anything up in the mirror, itself.
 
So, I cut the factory harness off my original mirrors and started twisting wires together to see what worked. I put the two GM common wires together with the CENTER Dodge wire, then the other two wires I hooked up, accordingly. There is nothing to hurt the switch in doing it this way. Either it works or it does not. The first time I wired it together, only one function worked, so I switched the wires and it worked correctly, all four directions. All the while, the GM common wires were hooked to the Dodge center (common) wire.

I'll plan to post back in the other thread with photos, but just wanted to give a quick update on the wiring I had concerns about.
 
To follow up, here are some photos of what I made up.

This is what you see once the corner trim piece is off and the harness is unplugged. Mine is a '95, and it turns out the pigtail ends changed somewhere, so not all ends are the same, however, the wire colors I had gotten from BigT were the same colors as my truck. His harnesses are available to anyone that wants to use them since I could not, with them being different than mine. Just PM me.
DSC_0566.jpg

Here are my factory pigtails soldered to the Dodge mirror harness. I think the photo is good enough to show which wires went with which. I tied the two GM common wires together and soldered to the center Dodge wire. The other two are self explanatory. If the other two wires you have left are switched, all functions won't work, so just switch them and you're in business.
DSC_0567.jpg

This one shows the hot glue I used to keep the Dodge harness in place. It also shows the post I had to grind off. If not ground off, it hits the door and the mirror won't mount flush.
DSC_0568.jpg

Here is what the inside looks like after mounted. I opted for silicone on the drilled holes to keep rust away. I also used spacers I bought from Lowe's. I'm not convinced I won't end up with the Dodge factory backing plates, but at this point, here is where I'm at.
DSC_0570.jpg

Next, you'll see the template I used, foam for the filler great white talked about and spacer information on the package. The thick foam was used to keep from viewing inside the mirrors while driving down the road. This will make sense once you do this installation, but go ahead and have some on hand. You'll also see this similar product on the inside of your factory mirrors once you remove them.
DSC_0571.jpgDSC_0572.jpg

Now, here is one last thing I don't think I've seen anyone else do. I bought some dense foam from McMaster Carr to use as a pad/filler between the plastic mirror base and my door. I trimmed it to about 1/8" larger than the mirror base and it takes up any imperfections from my trimming, and also keeps the plastic from running directly on the paint, which would eventually lead to running off the paint and result in rust. I'll find the part number and will post back with that. It was a 12" x 12" piece 1/8" thick and cost me about $3 for the piece (and $9 to ship it). I used the dodge foam backer, as well as my foam when I installed it, as you can see in this photo.
DSC_0573.jpg

The trimming on the outside plastic was minimal. I used a Dremel to do all the work. I found I needed to trim the upper edge, as well as the lower, front edge. Our doors are straight and the dodge doors have a contour to them, apparently. I also cut the post off that I mentioned earlier with my Dremel cutting wheel. I didn't make any pictures of this, because it would be really difficult to explain since the trimming was so small.

In a nutshell, if I was putting these on a "wood hauler" type truck that I didn't care much about, it would be a really fast installation and would require not trimming. Mine's not really in that category, and I wanted a factory look. I even got a compliment the first day I drove it from the most particular person I know and he said they looked good, better than factory, and "at least they're not those big, stupid dodge mirrors you see the guys driving around with". I broke the news to him that they are the same mirrors, but I'm just smart enough to keep them folded in when not in use (some dodge guys have not figured out that they can be folded back in, apparently.)
 
No, I didn't forget. :thumbsup:

I put them in my album, instead.

It said the new pictures were "pending" when I logged off this morning.
 
Is there a PMD connected to that mirror?

Yeah yeah. ..I'm being a smartass but last I looked, mirrors don't belong in the 6.5 forum. Makes me cranky. Sorry...

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
You're right, Mike. I guess one of the other threads started out in the 6.5 section, so I just followed suit. It really should be put in the exterior section.
 
I happened to think, this morning, that I hadn't checked my album in a while. I see my photos didn't show up of the finished product. I guess I'll try again tonight.
 
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