'91 to '94+ Taillight Conversion
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 14:27:12 +0200
From: sv1bt@compulink.gr (Kostas G. D. Chryssos )
>BTW, if you happen to have your parts list handy, what's the numbers for the
>'94+ taillight assemblies + center panel (black) that I'd need to upgrade my
>'91...
Hi Geoff,
The 94+ tail light assemblies are as follow:
1) 81550-17110 Lamp assy rear combination RH
2) 81560-17150 Lamp assy rear combination LH
3) 81750-17040 Lens rear side marker
4) 81760-17040 Lens rear side marker
5) 90159-40125 Screws (qty 4)
6) 90168-50050 Screws (qty 2)
7) 81496-20010 Guide rear combination lamp (qty 4)
8) 90189-04102 Plastic insert (qty 4)
9) 90189-06148 Plastic insert (qty 4)
I am not very sure that you can up-date to the above without drilling holes.
The mounting look slightly different.
You will also need the back-up lamp assy as it seems that the back-up lights
are separate from the rest of the assy.
1) 81670-17020- Lamp assy back-up
2) 90179-05095 cap (qty 4)
And the center panel
1) 75082-17050-CO Panel sub assy Lower back finish (Black)
2) 90179-05095 cap (qty 4)
Regards
Kostas G.D.Chryssos Ph.D.
ELFON Ltd. 30 Ikarias str., Glyfada GR 16675 Athens HELLAS
Tel: + 301 9628212 Fax: + 301 9628539 e-mail: sv1bt@compulink.gr
From: uunet!pitt.edu!spatel+ (Sanjay Patel)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 19:19:19 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Rear Taillight Upgrade
Well, I finally got all the parts for the 94+ taillight upgrade.
The taillights were about $100 apiece, the rear panel about $85, and backup
lights another $85 (Yes thats right).
I had ordered the taillights and the rear panel from Lou Fusz Toyota
thinking that was all that I needed (I had assumed that backup lights would
come with the rear panel, but that was not the case). I had to order the
backup lights seperately, and $85 is pretty steep. I went to a few
different parts stores to see if I could adapt any other backup lights but
since Pittsburgh is a small town there weren't a lot of choices, so I went
ahead and shelled out for the Toyota lights.
As for the assembly, what appeared to be a simple operation turned out to be
anything but.
Problems:
The new taillights had male connecters, while the old ones had females, so I
had to do a lot of splicing/soldering and testing with an ohmmeter.
The new backup lights that Toyota sent were huge and would not fit in
between the rear panel and the outside of the trunk. I had to cut out holes
in the rear of the trunk where the backup lights fit. Not an easy thing to
do. Plus the backup light wiring had to be soldered into the exisiting
mating connector. I need to get some rubber molding or sealant of some type
to place between the holes I cut out and the backup lights to waterproof it.
The side marker lenses did not come with the taillights, so I had to use the
old lenses, which are not an exact fit. The style is different and the
older lens is a little smaller. I had to cut off the snap-tight connectors
and glue (yuck) the lenses temporarily onto the taillight. I will call to
find out how much new lenses cost and I cant wait to hear what the
outrageous price is. Otherwise I can live with the old ones, they really
dont look much different except for the fact that they're glued on.
The new taillights also had snapfit connectors on them, they had to be
removed and replaced with the little rods from the old ones.
The trunk keylock is a good 1-inch recessed from the rear panel now. I cant
use a a key to get into the trunk but hey the trunk release still works :-)
I will be going to a couple of locksmiths tomorrow to see if they can rig up
an extender cylinder of somesort. I'll also check Toyota for the cost but
I'm sure it'll be outrageous.
It does look great though. I *really* like the round taillights. It makes
the car look sleeker and unique. Plus the ugly black honeycomb is gone.
Total cost will probably be at least $400, but since I had saved sooo much
on the price of the car, I really didnt care. Not easy for the average
person to install but not *that* difficult.
If you can do without backup lights, or find replacements that are smaller
and you dont need to cut holes, and can live with the trunk keylock
unusable, then installation is much simpler.
After I fix the lock problem, I'll type up more complete directions/pricing
information.
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 1996 22:44:53 -0500
From: Dan Seledic
Subject: '94 Tail Light Upgrade
OK,
Here is the scoop on making your back end look better, on your MR2 that
is... :-> Please memorize every detail of this write-up BEFORE you begin
this job. It took me over three minutes to write it and I don't want it
to go to waste...
Step 1: draw a mark around the car's body, from right side to left, so
there is no doubt you know where the trunk begins.
Step 2: take a chain saw and cut the trunk off the car.
Step 3: for those of you who just completed Step 2, just kidding. Weld
the trunk back on.
Seriously Folks,
This job can be accomplished by the average rocket scientist, but you
will have to A: Cut through sheet metal or B: modify sheet metal with
a hammer and you will also have to cut and solder wires.
If this is asking too much of your life long skills, have an experienced
pal do it for you. Just don't watch.
OK, here we go!
Open the trunk and remove the upper trim strip and fold down the rear
trunk trim sheet. Unplug and remove the 10mm nuts that hold in the tail
lights. Using a trim tool or screw driver, carefully remove the two
small side lights by prying out at the rear of the side light. They
will pop out. Save these for later use. Next, remove the 10mm nuts that
hold the center trim. Also remove the two phillips screws on top of the
trim that screws into the tail lights. Remove the center trim and tail
lights.
This is where the fun begins. Position the new tail light against the
body and observe the 4" by 3" portion that sticks out from the light.
This is the portion of the body that will have to be modified in order
to mount the '94 lights (one for each light). I chose to drill a hole
and use trim snips to fashion two holes to allow the light to fit. If
you use this method, be sure to seal the holes with something permanent
and waterproof. I also have a friend who chose to use a ball peen
hammer to dimple the body panel. It does not have to be pretty, just
provide enough clearance. The good news is, the metal is very easy to
cut and not so hard to hammer. Use your preferred method of sheet metal
destruction, uh, modification. Now that the lights fit perfectly into
place, remove the mounting clips (two phillips screws and a small bar,
four in total), and exchange them with the ones that came on the '94
lights. If you purchased and re-keyed a '94 lock (I did'nt, but
cannot use my key to open the trunk), install it now. Install the new
back up lights in the new center trim. I'm not going to go into too
much detail on specific wiring (colors and all, I may do this later),
but here is what is required. The connectors on the '94 lights will not
plug into '91-'93 cars. The wire colors match, but both connectors are
female. I chose to cut the connectors off of my old lights and having
done the same to the new lights, soldered on the old connectors to the
new lights. Then plug it up, check for proper operation. Next, finish
mounting the lights and center trim. Last, you must mount up the side
lights. On my car, the right side snapped right in, the left did not
fit quite so well, but with some adjustments, did mount up. I do plan to
purchase the '94 side lights to finish the job right. The old side
lights look ok, but the '94 side lights would be a more secure mount.
Was It Worth It?
Of all the comments I have had on my car, most have centered around the
cool tail lights. I am very pleased with the results and would do it
again in a second if I purchased another pre-94 car.
Toyota Parts List:
Tail Lamp 81550-17110 $117.71
Tail Lamp 81560-17150 $117.71
Center Panel 75082-17050-A0 $101.74 (A0 is body color, it's pre-painted)
Back up Light Assy 81670-17020 $108.01
optional:
"MR2" logo for rear trim - no # or price
Side Lights x 2 - no # or price
'94 Lock - no # or price (longer to fit rear trim. Dealer may match your
keys, may not)
That's it! If you have an interest, I may be able to save you 10-15% off
of List Price. Depends on my Toyota connections at the time. Feel free
to E-mail me with questions. I will probably answer if my wife does'nt
have me busy.........
Dan
dans@flash.net
From: "Crotty, Kenneth G." (AutoBdyGuy@aol.com
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 11:18:47 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Taillamp Conversion
I received a phone call from a gentleman in Switzerland this morning saying
he saw our telephone number on your web page about a 91-93 to 94 tailalmp
converstion we did for an Alan Baxter. We are a body shop in the So Ca area
that will do these conversions for customers. The conversion on Mr. Baxter's
'91 MR2 came out so nice, he put us on your web page. The conversion takes
most of one day, but the results are well woth it. The conversion makes the
car look very sleek and the back is much more stylish from behind. Email me
and tell where in your page we are. I'm thrilled and excited at the prospect
of doing these conversions. I'm the owner of the shop and did most of the
work myself so I could learn ways to improve and streamline the conversion.
We feel we have accomplished doing the conversion quickly. Email me back when
you can.
Thanks,
Mark Cardella
Eckhart Auto Body
10101 Canoga Ave.
Chatsworth, CA 91311
(818) 882-1396
On Sat, 14 Feb 1998, Geoff Seeley wrote:
Many thanks to those who contributed to the '94 taillight installation
instructions posted on mr2.com.
I used a combo of the various methods to perform a very easy installation
this afternoon. To summarize:
- I used an old towel and a "ball" hammer to dimple the rear panel for
clearance for the new backup lights. It sounds worse than it is
(not counting the screams of my '2 when I hit it ;-).
- I followed Kenneth Crotty's method of swapping the wiring harnesses and
cutting off the backup light sockets. This was MUCH easier as I only had
to solder two wires instead of about 12.
- I bought a 2-pole trailer wiring harness to connect the drivers side backup
wiring (on the taillight) to the new backup lights in the middle. (I
removed the connector on the new backup lights)
- The old sockets are a *little* different but they DO fit with a little
force (and vise versa for the new sockets in the '91 lenses, although they
don't hold as well and need a little MORE force to get them in..)
- I rekeyed a '94 lock to use my key. This required completely disassembling
the cylinder but it's not too hard to figure out... Watch out for the
little ball bearing which goes into a hole near the end of the shaft!
- I had to bend the arm on the '94 lock to make it clear the end of the
cylinder shaft. I found this when I was testing out the new lock and found
that the inside release worked once but not the second time. I'm glad I
tested all combinations several times as I would have been pissed if I had
to disassemble it all to fix this ;)
Overall is was really straight forward and I *LOVE* the new look of the '94
lights....
Geoff
'91t, 230,500km (w/93 TB and shifter, 94 taillights, 97 clear corners, etc ;)
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 15:42:58 -0600
From: Ralph Berger (bergerr@uchsc.edu)
Hi Geoff,
I don't know if you want to add my stuff to the 94' tailight
'tip' sheet but here's some of the stuff I found confusing/missing from
the other letters:
(the following is for a 93'MR2)
-each tailight assembly is held on by 3 screws: one on the
inside/top-readily viewable with the trunk open, and 2 under the side
markers. It should be obvious you shouldn't glue the old markers on as
previously suggested-shell out for the new ones!
-the center piece (ie. honey comb thing) is held on by 4 8mm nuts and 2
plastic studs. After removing the 4 nuts, you really have to pull hard
to remove the center of the unit where the studs hold the middle in
place. I put some duct tape over these center holes as they are not used
with the new assembly.
-Do use a hammer to make room for the new backup lights as suggested by
others, cutting will take much longer and let crap get inside the trunk
without a lot of work sealing. I sprayed a few coats of primer on the
area I hammered where the paint chipped.
- I could not exchange wire harnesses as the old bulb assemblies would
not fit in the new taillights. Not a big deal to solder, as all the
colors are the same. I ran a set of wires from the harness from the old
BU lights (blue/red=hot, black/white=ground) directly to the new BU set;
I just cut off the female receptor on the new BU lights.
-Having done one (and sweated out the possibility of ruining some of the
$500+ parts!) I could do another one in 1-2 hours. Its not that hard!
Ralph Berger
From: NICK CIGICH (hudson@inlink.com)
Subject: MR2 94+ Tail lights conversion. THE BOTTOM LINE
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 22:39:29 -0500
I recently put 94+ tail lights on my pre 94 Mister 2, and I'd just like to say that the articles you have on this modification are lacking. Some of them have too many details that you don't need (adding confusion) and some are seriously lacking in information and also strike fear in the heart of anyone wanting to do this modification. I'm here to tell you it's as easy as pie, as easy as installing an HKS Megaflow, and I'm taking the time now to show you what I learned, and how my method could be used to have the cool looking tail lights on in under an hour. Please submit this, as I feel it is a really worthy addition. The directions start 5 lines down, thanks alot and keep up the great work at your site!
This guide is intended to build confidence in people wanting to modify their pre 94 tail lights with the cool 94+ tail lights. Regardless of what you have heard, or what some other people may have written, this is an extremely easy process to accomplish. I started and completed the entire process in a little over an hour, and it looks so good even the folks at Lou Fusz Toyota thought it was factory.
Let me just start off by saying don't believe the hype when it comes to others saying how hard this modification is, it isn't. If you can't do something this easy on your car, you shouldn't even be driving in the first place. I think people like to talk about how hard something is to do just because it makes them look better, or more skilled or something. Bottom line is a moron, like me, can do this job and be damned proud of it.
OK, to make you car look cool (I'll talk later about the comments and praises I've gotten from people already, a scant THREE days after installing the lights) you first have to have the parts. DUH right? These are ALL the parts you will need, unlike another faq printed on this web site that just had an abundance of crud.
PARTS:
-Tail Lamp 81550-17110 ($117)
-Tail Lamp 81560-17150 ($117)
-Rear center panel 75082-17050-(color code comes next) (this is what gets rid of the ugly black honey comb with MR2 on it) ($105)
-Reverse lights 81670-17020 (set of two plus wires) ($108)
-Side marker lights 81750-17040 AND 81760-17040 (about $20 apiece for a total of $40)
-A set of four nuts the exact size of the ones that hold on the original rear honey comb panel. These are used to then secure the new reverse lights to the new rear panel. Each reverse light has two screws, thus you need two nuts for each. See how hard this is getting yet? ;)
-OPTIONAL: The new center panel that replaces the old one does NOT come with the MR2 logo inbetween the reverse lights. If you wish to order it (I didn't, keeps people guessing ya know :) it's just a sticker that costs about $15. If you know Toyota parts, that price shouldn't shock you.
OK, so the bottom line is that you now have roughly $500 worth of parts and nothing to show for it but a flat wallet and some weird glances from Toyota parts employees. That's ok, they'll soon be green with envy at seeing your new lights and you'll be wondering why you didn't make you wallet flat sooner.
You get home, get the parts unpacked, and you're ready to roll. Now, let's get down to the real business. These steps are laid out as simply as possible, read them closely and slowly and you can't go wrong.
First step is to get rid of those old faded tail lights. But beforehand, make sure to unplug your battery. Despite public opinion, backyard barbecues are not a good thing. After insuring yourself longer health, go pop open the trunk. You will see a sort of triangular piece of plastic that guards the trunk and the trunk keyhole. Grab firmly on each end and pull the piece straight up. It should come up with a minimum of fuss. Now pull back the carpet facing the back of the car so that you can see the tail light wires and more Japanese technological brilliance. The carpet is kept in place by two small plastic screws, just simply pull the carpet over the screws and that's it.
Now that the trunk is ready to go, let's get rid of those lights. The entire process of stripping your back end should take no longer than five minutes, and if it does, you either are really REALLY nervous or you have a sloth in you family background. First of all, pop off the rear side light markers (those are the farthest pieces of glass to the left or right of the tail lights for our mechanically inclinded friends) by prying a flat headed screw driver inbetween the two pieces of glass and popping them out one at a time. After carefully placing the two pieces away, you should now see two phillips head screws inside the black moulding created by taking the side markers away. Use a phillips head screw driver to remove the two on each side (total of four). I will take this time to tell you to KEEP EVERYTHING THAT YOU TAKE OFF YOUR MR2, you will use everything later and that includes the screws and nuts. That being accomplished, now move back to the trunk and peer down right below the trunk lid on the top section of the two light panels. You will see a single phillips head screw on top of each tail light. Guess what you do with those? That's right Tim Allen!! Unscrew those babies! Each tail light is only held on by three screws (as is the 94+ tail lights but we'll get to that later) so you are now ready to pry them off. You won't have to pull, as they should just come off. Notice all the wires for each tail light lead to one big one that ends in a black suction cup type thing. Now stick your head in your trunk and follow this big wire to where it connects to another wire that disappears into your car. This is where you will unplug the entire wire assembly for each tail light. Remember, there is one on each side, so you will have two separate wiring harnesses. Be sure not to harm these, as they will be used later on. Disconnect eash harness by pushing in on the tab, the wire connector should click off and then you pull the wire connector through the metal in the back and the rear light assembly is free to come off entirely. Do this twice, and you should have two tail light assemblies lying on your garage floor. Now for the ugly honeycomb piece.
The black piece that says MR2 on it is stuck in place with four screws and two pieces of plastic. Each of the four screws has a nut that you must loosen (easy to do) and these are located in the trunk, behind the carpet that you just recently dislodged. Feel with your hands to find them, the bottom two are easy, while the top two are a bit more difficult to get to. You may have to bend the top piece of metal a bit to get at the top two nuts, but don't worry, it bends right back. Remove the four nuts by turning counter clockwise (what else?) and store them away because they will be used again. These are the type of nuts that you will need four more of (for the reverse lights remember?) so locate four more of these before work continues. Once the four nuts are removed, grab the black honeycomb thing firmly and just rip it the hell off the car. Don't mess around and don't try to be gentle, fling the damned thing across the yard for being ugly and don't look back. Cool lighting is soon to come!
Step back and gasp. At this point, the entire back of your pride and joy looks like a chop job and you realize that you just trusted some wacko on the internet to tell you how to do such a hard job. Then you laugh when you realize that yes he is a wacko, but no, this is NOT a hard job.
OK, let's get down to the real work at hand, and this is where the stuff gets a bit tricky. The first thing you will notice is that the old wiring harness has female connectors while the new wiring harnesses have males. This is not a problem, so don't worry. Unlike other people who have spliced every single wire in order to get the new male connectors to work (which I have absolutely no idea why they did this. First of all, it takes forever, second of all it looks like crap, and third it cuts the reliablilty badly), all you will need to do is use the old wiring harness in the new tail light shell. Unplug all the lights, CAREFULLY from the plastic tail light assemblies, new and old, and get ready to make the swap. When you first try to twist the old lights into the new tail light shells, you'll say they won't fit. People who have tried this operation before said they don't fit. Private, you will listen to me when I tell you they DO fit, and as a matter of fact, once they're in place they fit a heck of a lot tighter than before. The trick is hard to explain, but the old light buld sockets have two blocks on the bottom while the new tail lights have four. You need to put one block in first, then snap the other one in and twist. Trust me on this one folks, it's tricky to do at first, but once you get it, the rest of them are as easy as pie to get in because you'll have the method down. Twist the three main lights in but NOT the reverse light. The reverse light is easy to distinguish because it only has two wires (red/white) while the others have three. Plug in the other three while leaving the reverse light dangling, why you have to do this will now be explained.
It should be obvious just by looking at your new tail lights, the reverse lights are now in the middle of the rear end! These are the only wires you will have to splice, and there are only four of them. Now follow closely, I'll show you how to make this tricky step easy.
The old reverse lights have a red and wire coming out of each of them. The two new reverse lights that you get will be connceted together and you will see a plug at the end. It should be obvious to you that you will need to cut this connector off, and do it now, saving as much wire length as you can. Once you have the two new reverse lights separated, you will notice how the wires on one are very long, while the wires on the other are very short and won't reach the main light assembly. Problem you say? OH hell no!! Here's a great trick I did to make the shorter wires long enough to reach the old reverse lights. Take one of the new wiring harnesses, that hopefully should be sitting away quietly if you've read these instructions properly, and simply cut off the side light socket and light bulb (green and white wire) and then cut off as much of those two wires as you can. You will then take the green and white wire, and solder them onto the green and white wire of the short wired reverse light!! Now each new reverse light will have plenty of length to reach the old reverse lights and thus have power. At this point, cut off each of the old reverse lights, red and white wires remember, and solder them onto the new wires from the reverse lights. RED WILL GO WITH GREEN, WHILE WHITE WILL GO WITH WHITE. Then use four of the above mentioned nuts to firmly place the reverse lights onto the new back panel. These reverse lights really look trick, and snap heads big time. You're now done with the wiring....
Almost!! Now here is where you will be happy that you didn't go splice happy like some of those other poor souls who attempted this conversion earlier. Simply take the old female connectors, run them through the frame like they were before, and snap them right back into the connection! Make sure the weather plug is in firmly, do this step for each tail light of course, and you have made all the necessary connections! This was hard!?!? Who are they fooling? Next step below!
Now here is the point that had me scratching my head and this may cause you confusion as well. If you have read any of the previous posts on this installation, EVERYONE has stated that they have either had to cut the metal or beat the crap out of their car with a hammer to get the new tail lights to fit. I was overjoyed when my tail lights fit in perfectly. I didn't have to hammer, or cut for God's sake (what was that guy thinking?) they just popped right into place. But if for some reason you have this problem, I guess you should hammer it, just for the love of God don't cut the metal. OK, now reassemble the tail lights exactly as you took them off. But do each tail light first, and then the center panel. For some reason, the right tail light is a bit harder to get to go straight than the left one. But just lean on it a bit and it will snap right into place. Once you have the two side bolts on each light in, the top one on each tail light, and the center panel firmly inplace with the same four nuts that the honeycomb panel had, it's time to put in the new side markers. This must be where this operation gets hard!! OH NO!!
Someone who did this job earlier actually glued on the old side makers. People, unless your name is Jethro, please don't do this. The side markers are only $20 apiece, unbelieveably cheap by Toyota's standards, and you've already spent about $500 so just suck it up ok?? Pop them into place by placing the two plastic connectors in first, and then popping it in by pushing the metal rod on the other side in. It's just that darned easy folks and you're done. The only part of this that can even be screwed up is the reverse lights, because they're soldered, and that's it. The tail lights are essentially the same lights that you had before, and I'm sorry that you wasted money on wiring harnesses that you didn't need. You can't even use the new light bulbs, as they have different connectors as well!!
Now, for the moment of truth, get in the car and trun on the lights and run back there and see how your lights aren't working. Of course they're not working you simpleton!! You trusted a wacko from the internet remember!! Ooops, ummm, or else you forgot to plug the battery back in. Get the juice flowing again and now you're rewarded with blazing cool lights! There should be two big lights working for each tail light assembly, four total for the mathematically challenged, the two blinkers, the two side lights, and of course, the two reverse lights. Congrats friend! You're done! But now here's the hard part everyone was talking about.....resetting the clock in your car and all the stations on your CD player. Ouch! That stuff is beyond me, I'll leave that mechanical engineering up to you!
Now for the bottom line. Is it worth it. Damn straight it's worth it folks. When I took my car back up to the Toyota dealership to rub it in the parts guys faces, my car attracted a crowd of mechanics around it while I was inside. As I came back out, one of them asked me where in the world I had found a 95 MR2 and that he had never seen one before. They were shocked when I told them it was pre 94, for they all thought it looked straight from the factory...which is about the best compliment you can get from a mechanic. I was also accosted by a 91 MR2 owner at a local gas station yesterday, who was oodling over my lights. He was flabbergasted when I told him it was a conversion, as he said he had considered doing it but had heard that it was too hard. This is what made me want to make this guide to the installation, because people, it is not hard and the new look that you get for $500 and some sweat (depending on what part of the country you live in of course) is by leaps and bounds worth it. Only thing I won't give you advice on is whether or not to lie and say you have a 95 MR2, I would never do something like that :)
Well that's it for me folks, hope this helps. I'd wish you good luck in your little operation, but take it from me, you won't need it.
Take care.
Hudson
Hudson@inlink.com
Written 6-17-98
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 10:25:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rob Griffiths (robg@netcom.com)
Subject: (Early) 93 to 94 tail light conversion
For those considering the tail light mod, and reading the sometimes
contradictory information on mr2.com, I thought I'd add my input. Over
the last couple of days, I swapped in the 94 tail lights on my early build
(April 1992) steel mist grey 93T. Net result - wow! If you're thinking
about this, and have a bit of time and the money for the parts, I highly
recommend it. The look is so much cleaner than the black honeycomb.
From all the input on mr2.com, I mainly used the data from Geoff Seeley
and Nick Cigich's posts. Nick's part list is spot on, although my dealer
(Beaverton Toyota, in Oregon) was able to provide prices somewhat better
than what's listed in Nick's article (about $425 for the whole kit,
excluding a 94 lock cylinder).
Here are a few additional notes that others may find helpful for the
project. They are in no particular order, and may or may not apply to
other models.
o On my early 93, dimpling the trunk was definitely required. A towel
and a ball pein hammer are the best way to go ... I'm not sure my
neighbors appreciated it last night at 11:00pm, but it is relatively easy
and quick (once you get past that first hammer blow ;-). It took a couple
of minutes of pounding on each side to sufficiently dimple the trunk. By
pounding through a towel, the paint did not chip at all.
o The center panel is a bit tough to remove; the plastic inserts in the
middle really stick well. Pull hard, straight back, and be sure not to
have your closed garage door immediately behind you ... don't ask how I
know this.
o Nick suggests cutting the new lights' wiring harness to get the extra
wire to connect the reverse lights. I saw no real reason to cut a
perfectly good set of lights apart, so I simply soldered on some new
appropriate-gauge wire, and terminated them in bullet connectors.
o As Nick indicated, you need four additional nuts to complete the
installation. The actual size you need is a "5mm" nut, which means an 8mm
socket. Two are used on each reverse light.
o On my car, the old tail lights are held in place with the three
screws, and (on each light) two small metal bars that snap into plastic
retainers on the body. One retainer on each side broke during removal;
pry carefully.
o The 94 tail lights don't have these metal bars; they seem to use a
plastic clip retaining system. I couldn't quite make this work with the
plastic parts on my 93, so I simply transferred the small metal bars to
the new tail lights. It may very well not be a necessary step, but it was
getting late, and seemed like the easiest solution.
I'm not necessarily the most mechnically inclined individual (although I
can solder relatively well :-), so this project had me a bit concerned.
However, it is very simple. I was slow and cautious about the whole
thing, and I think I probably spent a total of three hours actually
working on it. I think it was actually tougher replacing my blown A/C
light than it was swapping the tail lights.
-rob.
--
Rob Griffiths
robg@netcom.com
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 18:58:00 EDT
From: MR2Turbo91@aol.com
Subject: mr2 94+ tail light conversion, lock cylinder re-keying
hello all,
Well thanks Geoff, you cleared things up for me... thought I would do a
little write up on the lock as I have gotten alot of questions privately
about it...
Well, once you have all the other cosmettic parts listed on mr2.com about the
tail lights, here's how to make the lock work...
Go to Toyota and pick up part number 69055-17091 (cylander & key set). it
will come with a new lock cylinder and mechinism, and a new key.
remove your old cyliner and mech from the car by removing the two 10mm bolts
from the inside of the trunk. then remove the lock pull bar, pull cable and
anti-theft wire connection if you have the factory alarm.
the first step in changing lock cylinders is to re-key the new lock. I
re-keyed the new cylander with the "locks" (don't know the technical term)
from the old cylinder. This is where I had the most questions.... so, here
is the solution...
take the flimsy metal trim/decoration off the top (where the key goes in) of
the old cylinder. it is held in place by two squeeze joints, just use an ice
pic, or small flat head screwdriver and pull those squeeze points out, and
slide the top off the lock.
now, remove the C clip on the back side of the lock and pull off the lock
lever, a little washer), and the alarm trigger (if factory equiped). now you
have the lock cylander with the lever arm assy. place the old key into the
lock, and pull the locks out of the cylinder. (now, do this slowly and look
for a little ball bearing... one fell out of mine, and I didn't know EXACTLY
where it went, so when I re-assymbled it, I placed it where I thought best
inside, and the lock works perfectly, if you see where it goes, let me
know....
anyways, so now you have the cylander in one hand and all the locks and key
in the other.... slowly pull the key out, and you will see that all these
little "locks" will pop up. on one side there are 4 the other there are 5.
pull them out, and lay them on a clean cloth in the position they came from
the housing. also make sure none of those little springs in there fall out.
So, now you have 9 little "locks" layed out in order (I suggest two rows, 5
on the top and 4 on the bottom) and a old housing.
now, disasymble the new lock cylander, so you have an empty housing.
put the old locks into the new housing in the EXACT same position they were
in in the old housing.. when they are all in, you will see that if you put
your key in, all the locks are pulled flush to the housing.
put the housing back into the cylander and test it. it should move approx
120 degrees. take the key out and test the opporation. if it all works
well, put that metal trim ring on... reassymble the mechinisms...
now, once you have the two cylinders side by side, they look exactly alike
other than the length of the cylinders itself... But, it's decieving.... as
Geoff mentioned, there is a problem with the engagement of the pull cable if
you install it as is... it kind of binds. the reason is that the 91-93
lever arm is slightly shorter than the 94+ by about 1/16-1/8"s not enough to
see it well, but enough to screw up the engagement.
As the lever is rivited to the cylinder, the first solution to catch your eye
is just to bend the 94 lever arm a bit to make it work (Geoff did this with
no problems I believe). But to me, I didn't like that solution as I don't
like hand bent metal as it almost always eventually reverts back to it's
normal shape under force... so I decided to do it the hard way.. I took out
my dremmel tool, and I grinded off the rivits on the lever arm side of both
the assys. I then slid the lever off the old lock, and swapped it with the
new lock. I then spot welded the rivit with my MIG welder to make everything
permanant. though if you don't have a welder, or don't want to do this, you
don't have to as the mounting bolts will hold it all together anyway.
re-assymble the new cylander with the old lever arm and you should be done...
if you have any questions, just let me know...
Austin T