Rich Stern
Well-Known Member
Here's the kit. PIAA 40 driving lights. Very good quality throughout.
This is the convenient accessory connection block that Ford thoughtfully built into the vehicle, in front of the fuse box in the engine bay. I'll hook the positive lead wire from the PIAA harness here.
This grounding location is easy to reach, just in front of the battery. In the photo, I've already hooked the negative PIAA power lead here.
I thought getting the switch leads through the firewall would be a pain, but it turned out to be easy. This rubber grommet (I believe that's the transmission shift cable going through there) is easy to work loose. I ran a piece of household 14ga wire through from the cab, attached the switch leads to it with electrical tape in the engine bay, and pulled the leads through. The grommet went back in place easily and snugly, even with the switch lead wires in place. If you are wondering where this is in the vehicle, it's in the driver's side footwell. That's the brake pedal, partly in the photo on the right.
Here’s a frightening shot. This is what the ST looks like without the lower panels of the dashboard on the driver's side. You have to remove both a plastic panel and a sheet metal panel to open this area up. About 8 bolts. It's essential to get these off if the wiring is going to be done neatly. Note white/red, black/red lead wires hanging down. Those are the ones for the PIAA switch that were routed through the firewall. That's the hood release hanging down just to the right of the brake pedal; it comes off when you take apart the lower dash panel.
This wire bundle is under the left hand side of the dash. It contains all of the wires for the headlight and dimmer switches. It took me a couple of tries to find the right one. A purple wire with blue stripe turned out to be a hot lead when the headlight light switch was in either the parking or headlight on position. I spliced the PIAA switch wire to this one (note blue splice block).
The PIAA switch has an exit hole for the cable on the bottom edge of the switch housing. In a normal installation, you see the wire coming out of the switch. I wanted a wireless look, so I disassembled the switch, as shown here.
I notched the backplate of the PIAA switch so the wire could exit the back instead of the bottom. I used a small hobby saw and an X-acto #11 knife to cut the slot.
OK, this will probably send some of you running. I drilled (yikes!!!) a 3/16" hole in the dash, to the left of the headlight switch. I removed the PIAA switch connector so I could feed each of these leads through the hole. Note that I had to remove one more bolt here to pull the plastic trim away from the dash.
The result of all this switch modifying madness: A very clean, flush mounted switch with no visible wires. It's mounted a bit high because I found that if mounted directly adjacent to the headlight switch, it was very easy to hit unintentionally.
The single bolt attachment of the light to the Westin bar. The power leads are routed through the fascia, near the tow hooks. In the engine bay, I fed the leads through the same path occupied by the headlight power leads, and then down into the area behind the fascia.
The lights with the covers on.
The illuminated lights. This is a fun project. It's not difficult, but it does require some patience in routing the wire and disassembling the lower dash. I'd allow 2 hours for this project if you don't do the flush mounted switch modification. Perhaps another 30 minutes for the flush mounted switch.
This is the convenient accessory connection block that Ford thoughtfully built into the vehicle, in front of the fuse box in the engine bay. I'll hook the positive lead wire from the PIAA harness here.
This grounding location is easy to reach, just in front of the battery. In the photo, I've already hooked the negative PIAA power lead here.
I thought getting the switch leads through the firewall would be a pain, but it turned out to be easy. This rubber grommet (I believe that's the transmission shift cable going through there) is easy to work loose. I ran a piece of household 14ga wire through from the cab, attached the switch leads to it with electrical tape in the engine bay, and pulled the leads through. The grommet went back in place easily and snugly, even with the switch lead wires in place. If you are wondering where this is in the vehicle, it's in the driver's side footwell. That's the brake pedal, partly in the photo on the right.
Here’s a frightening shot. This is what the ST looks like without the lower panels of the dashboard on the driver's side. You have to remove both a plastic panel and a sheet metal panel to open this area up. About 8 bolts. It's essential to get these off if the wiring is going to be done neatly. Note white/red, black/red lead wires hanging down. Those are the ones for the PIAA switch that were routed through the firewall. That's the hood release hanging down just to the right of the brake pedal; it comes off when you take apart the lower dash panel.
This wire bundle is under the left hand side of the dash. It contains all of the wires for the headlight and dimmer switches. It took me a couple of tries to find the right one. A purple wire with blue stripe turned out to be a hot lead when the headlight light switch was in either the parking or headlight on position. I spliced the PIAA switch wire to this one (note blue splice block).
The PIAA switch has an exit hole for the cable on the bottom edge of the switch housing. In a normal installation, you see the wire coming out of the switch. I wanted a wireless look, so I disassembled the switch, as shown here.
I notched the backplate of the PIAA switch so the wire could exit the back instead of the bottom. I used a small hobby saw and an X-acto #11 knife to cut the slot.
OK, this will probably send some of you running. I drilled (yikes!!!) a 3/16" hole in the dash, to the left of the headlight switch. I removed the PIAA switch connector so I could feed each of these leads through the hole. Note that I had to remove one more bolt here to pull the plastic trim away from the dash.
The result of all this switch modifying madness: A very clean, flush mounted switch with no visible wires. It's mounted a bit high because I found that if mounted directly adjacent to the headlight switch, it was very easy to hit unintentionally.
The single bolt attachment of the light to the Westin bar. The power leads are routed through the fascia, near the tow hooks. In the engine bay, I fed the leads through the same path occupied by the headlight power leads, and then down into the area behind the fascia.
The lights with the covers on.
The illuminated lights. This is a fun project. It's not difficult, but it does require some patience in routing the wire and disassembling the lower dash. I'd allow 2 hours for this project if you don't do the flush mounted switch modification. Perhaps another 30 minutes for the flush mounted switch.
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