General Index
[1 - Overview] [2 - My wreck!] [7 - Crazy Robin!] [9 - Candy's Ranger] [10 - Keypad entry system]

Meets and Outings
[11 - Centralia adventure Part I] [21 - Centralia adventure Part II]

How-To Articles
[3 - Overhead Console Install] [4 - Overhead Console Wiring] [5 - MAF mod] [6 - LED switch mod] [8 - Homebrew Remote Bass Control] [12 - Headlight/4x4 Switch LED Mod] [13 - General LED tutorial] [14 - EATC install how-to (pages 14-19)] [20 - IAT Resistor Mod (older engines only)] [22 - Automatic Power Windows] [23 - Cruise Control Pod LED's]

Adding LED's to Ranger Cruise Control Pods

First, if your cruise control pods NEVER lit up, then this mod won't help you. You may have bulbs in yours and everything -- but there is no circuit run up the steering column and through the "clockspring" to your pods. 2000 Rangers and some other years are affected. 2001+ this should work fine, and even some older ones. Just FYI.

However, if you pods do or did light up, this is a nice mod for two reasons: 1) You can change the color to whatever you want -- and -- 2) You won't have to worry about bulbs burning out anymore. The stinking stock bulbs often do NOT last long.

Use "high brightness" LED's of 3000mcd or brighter -- the brighter the better, especially for red which the eye is not sensitive to. But whatever you use, select the right resistor. My general LED how-to will show you how to do this, or you can "fake it" by just using a 470 ohm, 1/4 watt resistor. This will work perfectly for the most common LED's.

Removing the pods

I have no pictures for this part, but basically it's quite easy -- though intimidating. Why intimidating? Because you have to remove the explosive airbag mechanism. Neither I nor anyone else I know has ever encountered a problem -- but you never know. Be sure to pay attention to the steps designed to minimize damage to you in the event of a problem.

1. To be even safer, disconnect the negative battery terminal and leave it disconnected at least 20 to 30 minutes before beginning. Leave it disconnected until you have everything back together. I have done it with the battery connected but I am NOT recommending it. How you proceed is up to you.

2. On either side of the center section of the steering wheel are 2 round trim plugs about an inch or so in diameter, textured just like the wheel. Carefully, so as not to damage them, pry them out. Beneath each one is a small bolt. Remove both bolts.

3. Now the airbag slides out from the steering wheel. Listen carefully: turn the airbag 90 degrees in a horizontal plane so it is facing to the side. It should not be facing either the wheel, or you. If it blows for some strange reason, we want the force to go to the side and not towards you, or towards the wheel and blow the frame BACK at you.

4. Remove the connector and harness from the airbag. Put the airbag carefully aside, minding that the frame has sharp edges and can scratch things in your truck.

5. Each cruise pod has a ribbon cable going to a black connector. Carefully pry out the black connector from each pod.

6. Now remove the two screws holding each pod in and remove them. They look like this when you get them out.

Disassembling the pods

Now, look below at these two pictures:

The pod basically comes apart into 3 pieces, a rigid plastic base, a flexible plastic face, and a circuit board. The circuit board is just "clipped" into the face under the edges. You can see in the right hand picture above, the board part way out from under the edges.

But the board/face combination is snapped onto two plastic tabs on the base which snap into the two small rectangular holes at either end of the circuit board. What usually happens to me is I break these tabs and you might also. Don't worry, you can keep the pod together using a trick which I've been using for 2 years an they are still together! That will be covered later.

You may be able to peel the face off the board WITHOUT unsnapping it first. Some have had success with this. But keep in mind that the face has a thin black plastic veneer over a white substrate and it scratches easily. However, if you get it off, you can then unsnap the board without damaging the tabs.

If all else fails, you'll break the tabs, and don't worry about it. It's the least damage to worry about. Just don't damage the face.

Removing the bulbs

The bulbs are just "twist lock" and removal is simple. Just grab the hex shaped plastic on the back of the bulb and rotate a 1/4 turn counterclockwise and it comes right out. Below are pictures of the bulb being removed.

Okay, okay, here's the trick! ;-)

I know you are already anxious about breaking those tabs. Here's all you do to fix the problem. Simply bend all the pins of each board from right angled as shown below left, to angled as shown below right. The collective spring pressure of all those pins, when the connector is fitted to them, holds the pod face down nicely.

Modifying the boards to take LED's

1. Cut the trace going to the bulb contact nearest to the connector as shown to the right. Although the two boards are different, and there are a couple of different variations, they all have this bulb contact and copper foil running to the connector pins. You can make two parallel cuts with a razor blade and scrape/lift out the center -- or, simply dig it out with a sharp point, use a Dremel tool or whatever works for you. Just make the break in the foil right next to the bulb contact as shown. Hold it up to the light when you're done to see if you can see light through it. If not, there's some copper left.

2. You're going to need some kind of tiny drill to make a hole. I use a little hand collet and small drill bits, but you can also use a jewler's screwdriver and just keep boring with it by twisting back and forth until you get through. If you use some kind of power drill be careful with such tiny bits and delicate work. Fiberglass is the pits for dulling out drill bits, by the way. You're basically drilling through glass which takes the edges off the bit pretty quick. You can get some used but still serviceable suplus printed circuit drill bits from AllElectronics if you want them.

3. Below you can see the two holes you need to make, shown from each side of the board. They just need to be big enough to take the leads of a 1/4 watt resistor. Just make the holes like these, spaced apart enough to accomodate the resistor. Do this to each of the two boards. The hole nearest the bulb hole gets drilled right through the arc-shaped foil where the bulb made contact. The hole nearest the connector gets drilled right through the foil trace, or as close as you can.

4. To the right is a view of a board with the foil scraped clean of a coating called "solder mask" to expose the bare metal. Just scrape a 1/4" or so starting at the hole closest to the connector, and towards the connector, as shown.

5. Now insert the resistors from the component side, and cut the leads to about 1/4" length on the foil side of the board. Bend the leads flat to the board, onto the arc-shaped contact area, and onto the scraped area. Solder the resistors.

6. Now take your LED's and modify them to "diffuse". See my other LED how-to's for more information on that. Next, take the leads and bend them back around to the front of the LED so they point in the opposite direction of the way then came. Now bend them out at a right angle to the LED, about 1/2 way up the body of the LED. Trim the pieces that stick out to about 1/4" or so, but keep track of which one is positive! Now insert the LED from the foil side of the board so the bent out pieces rest on the arc-shaped contacts. The positive lead should rest on the arc shaped contact FARTHEST from the connector -- that is, the one WITH the resistor. I will modify the pictures to show this. Another way to understand this is that the plus goes to the arc closest to the end of the board. The LED should "point" away from the faceplate, towards the back of the pod when it is assembled. The light has to reflect from the back to evenly illuminate the pod. Below you can see the resulting assembly. Note also I've cut away any "unnecesary" parts of the fiberglass board to let more light shine up to the face through the board. Also, angle the LED's towards the middle of the pod.

Final reassembly

If you've got this far, you can take your boards out and test them in the truck (you must reconnect the battery, but don't put the airbag back in yet). If they work, unhook the battery again and reassemble the boards to the faces. One board has two switches, and the other three, so it's easy to put them back right. Now put the pods back in, reconnect everything, put the airbag back in CAREFULLY, and reconnect the battery.

Hope you enjoy them! I have blue ones, but I've made red ones as well.

A bit of history and an alternate method

Here's what I used to do with these, but I didn't think it would hold up as well long term. The advantage is no drilling. Again, regarding polarity, in the right hand picture the bottom contact point for the old bulb is the positive lead.