loughman

Does anyone know specifically where there might be a dedicated wire to tap into for the dome light and 3rd brake light when adding a fiberglass cap to the bed. The cap dealer said they just splice into a wire at the one of the tail lights, then somewhere above the headliner, but I read somewhere, Ford provided a dedicated wire...any help?? I'd rather use a dedicated wire if one exists to avoid a potential future problem....

BucketMan

If you can wait till tomorrow I should be able to get you an answer then.

I had a ARE put on my truck the other day with a 3rd brake light and a dome light. I'll see where they ran the wires tomorrow when I get a chance to crawl under it.

It is hot wired so the dome light can always be turned on though.

elrod64

When I had my are cap installed they used a dedicated wire under the hood on the drivers just in front of the firewall. There was a green wire there that the cap dealer said was the dedicated wire that they ran under the truck. I wasn't in the shop when they did it. I do know that they also removed the drivers taillight and tapped in there also- possibly for the brake light. I wasn't allowed in the shop for insurance reasons so I couldn't see exactly what they did.
Jim

BucketMan

Ok, I took a look, im no electrical genius, so bear with me.

For power they tapped into the bolt that connects the battery to the fuse block located at the front of the engine bay. There are 2 large red cables that connect the battery to it, these are secured with a small bolt and nut. They simply attached a wire to it with an inline fuse and then ran it around the engine compartment towards the back of the truck.

Now, this is where it get a little lost. The wire runs on the driver side and near the firewall there is another inline fuse. On one side of the wire a very small guage blue wire with orange stripe runs into a factory wiring harness. The harness is pretty substantial and taped up pretty well, I have no idea what it is for, the wire simply disappears into it. On the other end is a white wire that enters a piece of loom and goes with the wire from the power source to the back of the truck.

I hope its not too confusing, but, thats all I got!

murf

Yup, gotta run either from the fuse box or directly off the battery for the dome. If you run direct off the battery you have to put an Inline Fuse!! But yes it'll be constant power so make sure to turn it off. If your ok with leaving the keys in to run the dome you can run off the constant power coming off of you 7 pin harness. It's the orange wire.