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Joined: Tue Dec 5th, 2017
Location: Michigan, USA
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Since this is a lighted mirror mod thread I should mention the ground wire needed to get this to work
The Ranger visor mounts to 3 plastic grommets. This totally electrically insulates the visor, since they never planned to put a light in the visor.
The explorer lighted visors only have one wire going to them, an always hot (positive) wire. It relies on the swivel being grounded to the chassis to complete the circuit.
A simple ground wire and a ring terminal the size of the mounting screw is sufficient to get the ground the visor needs.
It depends on the model year of the Explorer donor and that of the Ranger donee.
Early 2nd Generation Explorers (95~98) were grounded through the mounting screws. Ford added the plastic grommets to the later Gen2 Ex's (99~01), just like those in your 2000 Ranger. That made it necessary to also add a dedicated ground wire that travels back into the harness on each side. Early was single wire, late was 2-wire.
Rangers switched to the plastic grommets at roughly the same time as the Explorers. Most likely, 99 MY or thereabout.
- So, if you use the early Ex visors in a later Ranger (or Explorer), you need to add a ground wire like yours.
- For the later 2-wire Ex visors, you can take advantage of the ground wire that's already coming from the visor, running it to a convenient chassis grounding point.
- Early Ex visors mount the same way early Rangers do. With this combination, the visors ground through the mounting screws and no additional ground wire is needed.
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2003 FX4 Level II, Supercharged 5.0L V8, Headers, Duals, BW4406 manual T/C
Aussie Locker, Torsen L/S, 4.10's, Bilstein 7100 rezzies, Cadillac/Mustang rear discs, Duff traction bars
Keypad Entry, Lock LEDs, sway bar discos, Heated seats, Explorer EATC, Trip Computer and consoles
Other rides:
2016 C-MAX Energi (plug-in Hybrid)
2011 Taurus SEL (highway cruiser)
2003 Ranger 2.3L M5ODR1 Regular Cab (drudge)