Intalling a factory 3rd brake light on a 1991 4Runner

Belize Off Road Team · 06-08-2008, 06:05 AM

This is my write up on retro fitting a 3rd brake light from a newer Yota to my 91 4Runner.

Tools Used:
Power Drill
Philips Screw Driver
Wire Cutters/Wire Stripers
Electrical Tape OR Soldering Gun
Exacto knife
Paint
Spare 14Gauge wires just in case

This is me putting a 3rd Brake Light from a 1994 Pick-Up onto my 1991 4Runner.

My adventure starts by going to the junk yard my friend owns and asking for the 3rd brake light from a Yota P/U or 4Runner. and sitting on the body was a P/U with brake light still on and in good shape rubber seal and all.
*Note: when taking it off donar vehicle take as much stock wires with brake light as possible! It comes in handy to have extra.

So i paid nothing because i traded him a chrome bezel for my gauges that i never used. So a good deal for both of us. Then i went to the texaco and bought a red bulb that also fits the front corner lights and lower wattage than the bulb that was in there.

When i got home i had some primer and some flat black paint, so i very lightly sanded the housing and put 1 coat primer and 2 coats Flat Black and waited 2 hours before handling the housing. in the mean time i was tearing my inside apart to see where i can hook in and where i can run the wires.

So for the inside of my 91 i took the taillight off and pushed the wires & Gromet through and grabbed them from the inside. Then i removed the edge panel with the 5 screws on the floor so i could access the side panel. I then just simply pulled the bottom of the panel out enough for me to work in.

Now the colour on the wires was White with Black Stripe (Ground) and Green with White Stripe (Brake Light). So i cut off the coating on a small section of the wires from the taillights and i then wrapped the 3rd brake light wires around the taillight wires and to keep things simple i just used electrical tape to keep them connected and it works very well but Solder is probably a better way to go.

So from the taillight wires behind the panels i run the wires up between the body and the panel and from there i found out i did not take enough wire length from the donor vehicle. So i cut off the bulb holder so i would not have to drill a big hole to get it through. so i got the 14 gauge wire i had and soldered the extra length on and i made sure there was alot of slack left.

After the wires where done with i got the housing back together and lined the middle hole in the rubber seal (on the brake light) to the middle line on the black trim around the rear window.
*Note: On my roof, there are 5 rubber stripes, i had to cut off about 2 inchs to fit the housing.

I then looked for a drill that was small enough to go through the holes and I'm sorry but i forgot what size it was. I then drilled a marker on to the roof. i moved the housing and finished drilling the holes. i then drilled another hole (a bit bigger) for the wires.

When i looked for the hole from inside, it turns out that when you look through the hole next to the wiper motor there is more metal that seems to be touching the body. So when i pushed some metal wire through (so as to grab the brake light wires) it was not an easy place to find.

So i wrapped the brake wires around the metal wire and pulled the wire through and i reconnected the wires to the bulb holder.

From there i put the bulb holder into the housing, pushed the housing down and simply screwed the housing to the body.
Now by the time i was done, it was pitch black out and i could not find my camra so i got pics the next morning.

*Note on this pic, i used an LED to see how bright it would be, but it was so dull it would have been a waist of time. So after this pic I put the Red bulb that i bought at the texaco in.

If you have any questions or want more pics i can take some more pics and post them.

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