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Tired of your old 1st Gen floppy sun-visors? Here’s a way to completely eliminate the problem.
Tool’s needed: -drill and drill bits -air saw or a hack saw may work as well -electrical wire stripers and crimper -Phillips screw driver
Part’s needed: -some wire and bud connectors if you swap in power sun-visors -set of 91-94 explorer sun-visors, there are two kinds. A.) single visor no power. B.) Dual visor with power. Note: See picture below for examples. You may also use 2nd Gen BII and Ranger sun-visors for this swap as well.
Step 1: Find a set of donor sun-visors from the list above. Parts can be obtained from a local junk yard, auto wrecker, or from another member
Step 2: Remove your old sun-visors
Step 3: You MUST cut the alignment pins and screw sleeves off of the Explorer sun-visors. This is due to the fact that 1st Gen BII’s have a very shallow mounting plate where as the Explorer’s have deeper mounting plates. Also the alignment pins on the Explorer sun-visors don’t line up with 1st Gen BII’s alignment holes in the roof. Taking a few seconds to compare your 1st Gen BII’s sun-visors and the new Explorer sun-visors will quickly clarify why you need to cut the Explorer pins down.
Two pictures of what 1st Gen BII/Ranger sun-visor mounting brackets look like
Two pictures showing the cuts I made and how it's the same as the BII's mounting plate...more or less.
Step 4: Now that you have the new sun-visors cut and ready to mount, it would be a good time now to run wires for the vanity mirrors if you so choose to. Constant power is available at various sources. Therefore I leave it up to you to run and connect the wires as you so choose. I ran all mine in factory locations so as to keep it tidy, and a much cleaner install. I already have CP in my driver side A pillar for my rear cargo light so I just tapped into it. A word of advice about wiring, if you are not very good with electrical then have a professional pre-run the wires for you. You don’t need your rig burning down in the name of vanity mirrors.
Step 5: Use an existing screw hole in the roof to hold your new sun-visors in place. Hold the sun-visor up and use the clip end (this is the part that the end of the sun-visor clips into to stop it from swinging freely like your old floppy sun-visors) and make the location of the screw hole that will have to be drilled into the upper support hidden behind the roof liner. Trust me it’s there. See picture for approximate distance from the front window.
Two pictures to show roughly the locations and holes that need to be drilled. Please ignore the third hole in the second picture...that was a mistake of mine...therefore you should learn from that and not make the same mistake.
Step 6: Move the sun-visor out of the way and drill a hole for the clip alignment pin and for the screw hole. Again inspecting the new sun-visor will clarify this. I used the plastic alignment pin to puncture my roof liner so that I knew exactly were to drill the alignment hole. After drilling the alignment hole, place the sun-visor back into position and use the new alignment hole and a punch to make the hole in the roof liner that needs to be drilled for the mounting screw. This insures the correct distance between the alignment pin and the screw. Make sure at this point you carefully choose your drill bit size so as not to make a bigger hole then is needed.
Step 7: Make final electrical connections and install mounting screws. Note you made holes for the clip end. I suggest you start with that screw first. Then move over to the main mounting bracket. This suggestion is advised; because the mounting brackets screw holes will not all align up with the old BII screw holes. Therefore new holes will need to be drilled. Self tapping screws will save a lot of time at this step.
You should now be finished. Test everything and double check your connections and wires to make sure you didn’t cause a short or something like that. If you don’t have power then it doesn’t apply to you. Now enjoy never getting hit in the head with your sun-visor again.
Note: The author or broncoii.org takes no responsibility for this install. Therefore we/I take no responsibility if you screw this up and damage your rig. This is just the steps taken by an individual member that wishes to share a modification with others to copy freely at their OWN will.
Questions and clarifications can be directed to CBII.
Tech. Page written by: CBII and edited by: rentalguy1 |
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