Power Mirror Installation

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Hijacker
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Car: '92 240sx Convertible
'94 F-150
Location: Fredericksburg, VA

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Ok. I just finished swapping them into the vert today, and I believe I was instructed to make a write up for it

EDIT: Make a note that I installed USDM power mirrors. These are NOT the JDM folding mirrors.

On the coupe and hatch, power mirrors are plug and play. The harness plugs existed even on the manual mirror cars for ease of wiring for the factory. Since the convertible places the rear quarter window switch in the stock location of the mirror switch, the factory ommited ALL harnessing for power mirrors. If you decide to put power mirrors in (whether they be USDM power mirrors or JDM folding mirrors), you'll need to fabricate ALL of the harnessing yourself.



Here's the wiring diagram for the factory setup. I tried to follow it as much as possible while creating the harness. Purple/White is a power source for both mirrors, and the rest are ground completes to actuate the motors. Following this diagram, you should have no problem fabbing up a harness. The only differences I made were I tapped the Blue/White switch power line from the ACC line off the radio, and I grounded the whole unit out on the trans tunnel.

What I did was run wires for the doors and for the chassis seperate and used some radio shack molex connectors to create a plug for dissassembly. Should the need arise.

The first step is of course to take out your interior. I removed the center console, the radio, the doors, the glovebox and frame, and the kick panels.

Second step is to decide where you want to mount your switch. I mounted mine inside the center console's arm rest. On the vertical edge. It's out of the way, and oriented the same way it would be stock.



Next, I ran one line for the LH harness. I ran it from the location that I was going to mount the switch. Then I used that wire to measure my other wires for the LH harness. Each half of the harness is 3 wires.



A quick stop at radio shack yielded some male and female molex connectors. They only had 4 wire plugs available, but I'm not worried about wasting a plug hole. Pulling out the old soldering iron, I made some spot solders to the wires to hold them to the metal plugs of the molex.

(I used the zipties to keep the molex from seperating (i didn't like how loose they stayed connected))

Repeat the same on the RH portion of the harness and then connect the switch plug to the harness. I used crimp connectors for this connection since so many wires were there, I didn't want to risk any short circuits due to touching solder joints.

Next I cut about 5 feet of wire for the door harness and soldered the wires to the female molex (or male if you used the female on the chassis harness). Then, with either mechanics wire (recommended) or a coat hanger (in a hurry) poke a hole through the upper door grommet and run the wire in. Then wrap it around the door harness and pull it through. Make a slit in the lower grommet with a razor blade. You will have to pop it out of the door frame to wriggle it into position. I also ziptied the new harness to the old harness to keep it from getting mangled and mashed. Run it up the top hole on the door and trim the harness down to your liking.



I snagged the stock harness plugs for the mirrors so I could make another plug connection for easy dissassembly.

Now just find a suitable power source. I tapped the ACC line from the radio, and grounded the plug straight the chassis.


IveBeenBad
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and i stood around and drank mountain dew... it was win win

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Hijacker
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Car: '92 240sx Convertible
'94 F-150
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you helped run the harnessing through the grommets. you have no clue how much help that was.

IveBeenBad
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tenkawa_akito wrote:you helped run the harnessing through the grommets. you have no clue how much help that was.
all in a days work my friend

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AZhitman
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Damn, Bart!

YOU ROCK!!!!

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Hijacker
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'94 F-150
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i seem to be on a roll lately.

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Hijacker
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Car: '92 240sx Convertible
'94 F-150
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And power folding mirrors only require you to run the extra wires for the folding motor, but that's self explanitory. If you want to keep with the molex connection idea, radio shack sells 2 prong molexes as well as 4 prong

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D1SR240
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1991 Nissan 240SX

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Nice write up Bart, i'm definetly going to be using this in the future.

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evilrb
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Dude, YOU ARE GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks man for this write up, I know this was made a while ago but this helps me so much!!!

I'm gonna install my JDm floding mirrors first thing in the morning.

Just wanted to let you know that 2 years later people still benifit from this write up!

JSvert240sx
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Any pictures on how and where you mounted the switch? finished pics? Looks great by the way, got the mirrors and switych at home jsut need to get around to it.

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DeXteR
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i'm very glad this got bumped - not because i wouldn't be able to figure this out, but because it's a nice mod that i hadn't thought about doing. i think when it comes time to do the door swap on the vert, i'm going to incorporate the power mirrors.

i would really like to see some pictures of the finished install including how the switch mounting turned out. thanks in advance

Paradox
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Nice write up!

I am going to do my Japanese power folding mirrors soon and will take pics and write up when I do. I doubt the doors need to be removed to do this, I am certainly not going to remove my doors for it. I guess since the Japanese mirrors take 4 wires I oculd go the radio shack route, but since I have the plugs that came with the power mirrors and the switch, I can just run wires to the cut harness plug and solder and heat shrink them together to have the plugs to be able to take them out if I need to without removing everything. I will just need to tap into a power supply and run that to the switch itself.

I plan on putting the mirror switch in the console where it is on other coupes/hatches, and putting the rear window switch in the opening in the armrest and not mounting it since I will probably not ever use it anyway.


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Hijacker
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Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2003 4:57 am
Car: '92 240sx Convertible
'94 F-150
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heh, sorry I didn't see this get bumped up earlier. But that was the location I put it in. It's hidden, out of the way, and with a bit more finesse than I have can be made to look very nice. ABout the only annoying factor of that location is that if you use your concole for storing, it's a ***** to get to your switch. But since I set mine and haven't really touched them since, it's a moot point.

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nissanconvert
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I recently bought 2 dimmer switches to put in the blank spot and overdrive slot in the dash. I plan on wiring the rear window switches there so they are accessable and look stock(as much as dimmer switches running windows can) when i put my mirrors on. I'll be sure to post it up when i get it working

jackash002
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Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 1:27 pm
Car: 92 240sx vert,

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Hello, new to nico, i searched and couldnt find any results so im asking in an existing topic so someone else might be able to find it if answered and searched for.. hopefully you guys are nicer with noob stuff then my 4x4 forums. i am parting out a coupe to myself and it had power mirrors, so im thinking about installing them if not too involved
1) will the door wiring harness from a coupe w/power mirrors plug into the main harness of a convertible?
2) stated above was that the power mirror wiring was abscent, does this include the wiring in the main harness or just the door harness?

background info: coupe is 89 with power everything auto and hud, with 92/93? engine and 5 speed installed and a 92 5 speed computer. convertible is a 92, stock
thanks


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