Ok, window switch... Typing as a I go....

-Pop out switch panel. You don't need to take off the door panel. Pops out, unplug two plugs.
-Two screws on the back, remove.
-flip back over, 4 black screws on top, remove.
-Now, this part, I'm not sure of. You gotta slide the top off somehow. When I did it, I heard a CRAPLOAD of stuff falling out/around inside. Opened it up and there were a buncha little pieces everywhere. I don't know how everything fits together... :( There's two silver springs that don't appear to go anywhere. Everything else seems to go somewhere with no problem. Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Oh crap. Just lost a spring. Oh, well, no more window lock... :pat:
FOUND IT!!! Ugh.. looking through the trash for a tiny spring is not fun. NOTE: don't play with the window lock switch because there's a spring on the back that pops off if you push down on it.
-Ok, back to the LED.
-the LED is on the underside of the black thing on a green PCB board, held in by melted plastic.
-OH, the silver springs are for the LED board contacts. They go on two posts on the white piece. *refer to Bill's picture to see what pieces I'm talking about*
-The board is held in in a way similar to Bob's method of fastening the velcro for his V1. "Later, using an old plastic modeler's trick, I took a hot screwdriver and melted the bottom of it flat so as to create a more permanent mount:" To "unflatten" it, I used needle nose pliers and squeezed it until it was thin enough to slide the board off. It looks like Toyota also used 470 ohm 5% tolerance resistors.
-There is pin which the two front window switches pivot on. Remove the C-clip holding it in, remove it, and pull the driver's switch straight up.
-dremel out the LED hole to fit the new LED.
-Unsolder the old LED out, and solder the new one back in. NOTE: careful when unsoldering the old LED and don't be too rough. The solder pads separate easily from the PCB board. I just spent the last half hour repairing it :pat:
-I flattened the top of the LED w/ the dremel (or sandpaper) so that it would have better light dispersion and it looks a little better than leaving it round.
-put the board back, and use the sodlering iron to remelt the plastic

*-from here on, it's just reassembly! :)
-tip: when putting the black switch cover back on the white piece, the window lock switch's contact block is going to prevent it from closing. Use needle nose pliers to squeeze the contact block so that it slides in.

My driver's side window switch doesn't sound as nice anymore :( I think I need to get some grease and regrease it one of these days.

Well, that's the driver's side switch! I hope you guys find this useful! Good luck!

Coming in a couple days: Defrost and Hazard switches, cig lighter, ashtray, and glovebox lights! I still haven't gotten my lighting gels, and I can't find any place that has inkjet compatible transparencies so I don't know what to do about those :dunno: Does anyone have a inkjet tranparency that I can buy?

Edited, too many requests for something I offered Dub. Y'all a bunch a greedy fools!!:roll: :roll:

Dub, good write up. Looks like you're beating me to the punch so I look forward to your other write ups. Good luck. :drink:

I can't see the beautiful interior.... :cry:
It seems you have a bandwidth limit...

:chair:

AUGH, I had a whole writeup for the defrost and hazard switches but a click on a link in AIM and POOF, it's all gone :mad1: :chair:

Well, it went something like this:
-first off, you should buy some grease to replace all the grease you wipe off from handling.
-Use the crutchfield instructions to figure out how to remove the center of the dash.
-remove switches from the center dashpiece.
-remove bulb from the bottom of the button. 1/4 turn, pop out.
-I didn't know how to make the latches on the side of the button let go so that I could open up the button, so I dremeled them off :D
-pop the front of the button off. pop the label off. I cleaned the adhesive off, and then scraped the green layer off with a sharp blade. Don't go too deep.
-For the hazard light, the front doesn't pop off, so I stuck a paper clip in there to pop it off. I bent the end of the paper clip into a U so that it wouldn't damage the label. The red is just a piece of plastic behind the triangle sign.
-I didn't use the light films because I haven't gotten them yet. I think it turned out ok.
-solder the LED/resistor combo directly to the bulb contact pads. I don't remember exactly, but I think the pads towards the back of the button are the + ones. Double check though.

can't remember what else I did, but if everything looks ok, reassemble! :bigok:

Next up... cig lighter, ashtray, ECT switch, glovebox.

-I didn't know how to make the latches on the side of the button let go so that I could open up the button, so I dremeled them off :D

Ouch bro! The trick is to stick some very small jewelers screwdrivers in the sides of the switches where the catches are, and not pry out but rather push in the sides at the same time.

-pop the front of the button off. pop the label off. I cleaned the adhesive off, and then scraped the green layer off with a sharp blade. Don't go too deep.

Actually the green on the defrost is a seperate layer, you can stick a razor blade in between the two layers from the side of it and the green part should come right off. Wish I would've got some pictures of that.

-
can't remember what else I did, but if everything looks ok, reassemble! :bigok:

Next up... cig lighter, ashtray, ECT switch, glovebox.

One note that might help you, don't tear out the entire glove box like I did, if you look up at the stock light, it looks like a little grill covers it. This opens up, and then you can pull the light assembly down and just replace it with an led right there, I didn't realize that until I had the glove box laying on the floor.


keisur, I didn't mean anything negative towards anyone here by that edit up there, let's just say that I received a lot of requests for what I had offered Dub that I wasn't prepared for, I think there's a lot peeps out there contemplating this dash conversion.

Thanks for the tips! I figured it would be ok to dremel the little latch things out because it's still really hard to pop open.

I think the little grill on my glovebox light got ripped off :pat: before I custom installed the PA300 siren in there, it kept bumping the grill and I think it eventually took it off. I think I might take the glovebox off anyway so I have more room to work with, since it's only 2 screws :dunno:

How did you go about installing the lights in the ashtray and cig lighter? I think I might solder in the LED, and then solder the resistor onto the wire...

Also, how did you pop the labels off of the A/C and rear window switches?

*edit* nm the A/C one, I just did it.

A/C:
-pop it open, be careful, there's a spring on top that might shoot out when you open it.
-the pcb board pops out.
-solder in the stuff you need to solder in.
This isn't final as I'm just looking at it right now and don't have the stuff I need to do it correctly.

Bill, did you replace the green LED on the a/c switch? I don't see any resistor soldered the to board so is it ok to just solder the new one in?

I know, I was kidding around. had a couple beers last night. oops. :bigok: but I am cutting and pasting this thread to notebook for printing out. :readit: :ignore: hehe.

The ashtray and the cig lighter both have the same kind of bulb holder, like the ignition key ring. For those holders I removed the stock bulb, cut the wires right behind it, pulled out the metal contacts so that all thats left was the plastic holder, dremeled out the inside of the holders so that if you look through it it was just one big hole instead of the two tiny holes where the wires stuck out, then inserted the led/resisistor, then soldered onto the cut wires from the dash. Did the glovebox light the same way.

For the rear window switch I just took the switch apart and pushed it out from inside. If I remember right it's a bear to fit the led/resistor in that switch, I have pics of that one on my site.

I did not replace the green led on the a/c switch, that way the a/c is blue but when on still has the green light on the left.

Oh, so you essentially just used the holder part of the bulb. I think I'm gonna keep making my LED/bulb retrofits :D That way if I REALLY want to, I can turn it back to stock.

Ok, A/C switch.
-I soldered little wires to the contacts to test them. Ok, I got my digcam back so I'll snap some pics. In this pic, the bulb contacts are in the upper right of the board. the right side is +, left side is -.
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94463

in this pic, the LED's + is the left leg, and the - is the right one. It's reads about 2v with the parkign lights on, like 2.2v or so w/ the lights off.
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94465

I worked on the LED first.
-unsolder the LED. Heat up both pads and pull the LED from the other side.
-To clean the holes, I heated both pads up, and then smacked the wrench/PCB board combo against the table. Inertia ought to cause the solder to slide right out :) You can see the two dots of solder in this pic.
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94475

-I used the dremel to enlarge the hole of the piece on the left in this pic. The new LED is a lot bigger.
-The two are initially interlocked. The piece on the right is actually two pieces (you can see the piece in the back is actually another piece), but they snap/slide together.
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94479

DAMNIT. I had buncha stuff written up, but file was too big and erased my text. :mad1:

-Anyway, bend the legs of the resistor 90 _at_the_base_. It turns out that it makes the LED just the right length and height this way.
-cut the legs to length
-insert in the board and solder in.
you can see the LED in the upper right of this pic.

The other LED took a bit of creativity. There's no room in the space inside the switch for the resistor, so it has to go on a little space on the outside of it. You might be able to figure out your own solution, but this is how I did mine.
-bend the - leg straight down again and soldered it in place.
-notch the plastic of the switch to let the + leg of the LED slide through.
-solder the resistor on. You can see how I did it in the picture.
-bend the resistor leg back under the resistor. The idea is to have it pass directly under the other leg so that it slides in the same notch in the plastic.
-bend through the hole and solder to the pad.

You can see in this picture that I flattened the tip of the LED that replaced the bulb, and I left the LED that replaced the stock green LED round.

https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94500

This is a bad picture, but if you look really closely, you can see the resistor. There's a bunch of black gunk all over the resistor and its legs which is some paint on electrical "tape" I borrow from my friend. Well, this picture is mostly to show you the little space on the "outside" of the switch.
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94501

There is something called "Desoldering Braid" that you put on top of the solder you want to remove and heat with a soldering iron. The solder wicks out into the braid leaving a nice clean area for resoldering.

You can get it at RS.

you could also use some copper braided solder sucker. That might be a little easier on the board. ;)

Screwdrivers
 

The little screwdrivers that keep being mentioned can be found at your local wal-mart in the glasses section. I think I saw them in the check-out line in home depot too. They're for fixing glasses and will come in handy if you're doing the blue dash mod.

Zach

Very nice. I just ended up soldering the resistor inline in the wrie harness right before the plug. Hopefully you're gonna put this all on a web page and not jsut in these posts? (hint, hint)

I know about the desoldering braids and bulb sucker thingies but I always forget to get them because I've gone so long w/o using those :dunno:

I have a mini-screwdriver from my swiss army knife, but that's the only one I have.

Yeah, I do my stuff pretty ghetto-style but it seems to work ok for me so far :bigok:

I'd make a webpage, but I don't know html... I never bothered to learn.

that's ok. haha, everytime you post another instruction here I cut and paste it to an email and email it to myself. I just keep adding to the last one so when it's all said and done, I'll have a complete write up to reference. haha. plagiarism at it's best!:laugh: tell, ya what, you keep posting here and when you get done, I'll save you the trouble and email it to you, or if you have capability of hosting a webpage, I'll make a page for the write-up.

Got one done!
 

Was bored tonight so I started on the blue dash. Got the ignition light done. Not the best picture; this looks better in real time.
http://pics.montypics.com/2001_4Runn...0_DSCN0082.jpg

Zach

Thanks keisur! :D
That's another reason I haven't made a offical writeup: I don't have any webspace. I'd have to use tripod or something.

Ok, the ECT switch (for those w/ an auto)
-Once you figure out a way to get the two clips to release, and push the switch open, it's pretty easy from there.
-I pulled the part that you touch off, and pulled off the label, and it's light blue, so I didn't bother doing anything else with it. Just stuck it back on and moved on.
-The PCB board is held in by two clips.
-the light is a green LED. 2V when it's on.
-The leg next to the text ("B89PB586" on my switch) is +. other side is -.
-Desolder, solder in new one.
-That's it! :bigok:

Hmmm... how are you going to get around this: the LED needs around 3.5V to light up nice and bright?

Zach

cig light.
-there's a little grey bulb holder that confused me. I couldn't figure out how the bulb was held in. Ends up there's two thin flaps of plastic on either side that clip into the bulb as it slides in. Actually, the bulb's contacts are soldered to the two metal tabs you see sticking up. Anyway, pull the flaps out, pull the bulb out.
-break off the bulb's contacts, and slide the tabs back in, since they're the contacts for the holder.
-Solder the LED to the tabs sticking out the top. ***Mark on the bulb holder which side is the LED's + because I think this holder is reversible.***
-solder the resistor onto the wire harness coming from the dash.
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94553

At 2v, it seems to light up ok. It's about as bright as the Auto, hazard, and defrost so far.

The A/C has the two lights on it, one that indicates that the A/C is on, and the other one is the parking light one. The A/C one dims when the parking lights come on. When the parking lights are on, it's the same brightness as the rest of the lights. When the parking lights are off, it's really bright.

I may be able to wiggle it in somewhere on my site, you just have to let me steal the pics.

Yeah, sure you can take the pictures, just say they're yours or mine. I don't want to see the pictures pop up on ebay or something as a "blue dash kit". LOL :D

Ok, back window switch. pretty straight forward.
-take bulb out
-pop switch open
-replace bulb w/ LED/resistor combo
-pop label out and clean off adhesive
-I found that if you wetsand the back of the label VERY CAREFULLY, you can remove the layer of green. Don't try w/ a blade. Just try wetsanding it. I used 600 grit
-close it up and you're done!
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94582

Bill, how did you wire up the 8 LEDs that light up the a/c panel? and how did you mount them? I'm thinking of taking the plastic piece and drilling holes in it to mount the LEDs in...

Ok, the A/C panel. This thing was a B!TCH to take out. I'm sure there's other ways to approach this, but after thinking the drilling the plastic thing, I thought the LEDs might be too close to the back of the panel to light it evenly, so I wanted to take the whole thing out and mount the LEDs directly to it.

*manual A/C controls* (not the new digital ones on the newer 3rd gens)
-there's two screws holding it in on either side. Really easy to see.
-unplug hardness on the back of the the fan-speed switch, and the white plug on the right side (I'm guessing it detects that you have the vents set on defog and turns on the A/C)
-A big clip holds the fan speed switch in on top. lift the clip, and slide the fan speed switch backwards.
-There's four wires that slide in and out of sleeves. There's clips on the A/C assembly that grab collars on the end of the sleeves.
-Spread both clips outwardsm and then pull the sleeve out. (shown in pic) *FYI, this step is the epitome of "easier said than done"* I found the easiest way was to take my swiss army knife pliers, stick them on the inside of the clips, and push into the collar, so that as the pliers go outwards around the collar, they open up the clips.
-unhook wire from the arm of the lever
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94605

ok, now all that should be left is this pesky plug left that the A/C button plugs into.

I'm not sure exactly how this thing went in, but here's how I think it worked. It slides in from the bottom, as you can see the rails that it slides in on. There's these two pieces of plastic that run parallel to the rails that have the lockin triangle thing on them. You can get to the one on this side, but not the other because it's in a deep tiny hole.

So, to get this one out, I stuck a flathead in next to the side of the plug from underneath, twisted, and then used a whole bunch of brute force to get it out :bigok: LoL.

Here's the picture of how I think it works. the plug is in yellow, rail and lock in red. *the picture is actually wrong for the plug shape as the plug is longer sideways than it is vertical, but that doesn't matter too much.*
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94606

Heh you're a brave man, I never removed the whole temp switch assembly. I did take off the fan speed switch and yes I remember it being a pain too. Once I had the fan speed switch out, there's two black wires coming from the bottom side of it. I set up all the lights from those two wires, just wired in parallel, then drilled the holes in the black plastic on either side whre the original light was, then fed them through the back side. Be real careful after you install them and watch the control arms as you move them back and forth, make sure they're not going to get hung up on the wires. I did not reuse the clear plastic piece, it wouldn't have fit with the bulbs sticking out anyways, unless you drill a depression for each bulb, I found it didn't make much difference anyway when I held it up there.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/o/l/olaverty...h/IM000833.JPG

I basically did the same thing, except I just wanted to work at my table instead of in the truck :bigok: How did you you insert all the LEDs though? there's a bunch of crap back there that would get in the way and would make it really tough to do in the truck.

Ok, A/C panel

-first, I dremeled out the two "barriers" inside the lighting area. I figured they would get in the way of the light dispersion. *edit* you can see above in Bill's picture the barriers I'm talking about. One is on the left side to the right of the left-most LED. The other is on the right side above and below the right-most LED.
-then marked and drilled 3/16" holes for the LEDs.
-Flattened the heads of all the LEDs I would be using.
-soldered resistors to all, and then soldered all of them in parallel.

right side
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94654

-I also wrapped them in regular electrical tape, just in case since there's the moving arms above and below the wires.

right side installed
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94655

There's a pic of the three leds for the left side, but it looks like the right side, so I didn't post it.

the back, showing the wiring. The wires are sandwiched in electrical tape
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94656

testing... lookin good! :bigok:
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94657

I made a thingy to plug into the bulb socket.
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94660

it's a really thin piece of plexi glass with two of the cut off LED legs sunk into it, and then bent 90 degrees out the back. I used the plexi to hold the legs in position so that I could solder the pieces of wire that would be my contacts. I did it the same way I described earlier of making Us with wire and soldering them.

And this is everything done!
https://www.yotatech.com/attachment.php?postid=94661
Now just reassemble! :bigok: