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Summary: How to prep a turn signal replacement socket. Learn how to switch turn signal sockets and bulbs, and how to check wiring in this free car maintenance video.
Views: 333 | Tags: maintenance, car, headlights, automotive, turn, repairs, vehicles, signals
About the Expert
Nathan McCullough Nathan McCullough graduated from Nashville Auto-Diesel College and received their Craftsmanship Award and Honor Seal. McCullough has managed several automotiv... read more
In this clip we are going to talk about the proper method to remove, replace and diagnose a turn signal bulb and socket on a 91' Ford Explorer. In this step we are going to talk about prepping of our donor socket and partial installation of our butt connectors. What we're going to do is snip the wires off. I'm going to want to leave about an inch and a half to two inches and cut them down to size. The junkyard guys will give you a lot more wire than is necessary, just out of the kindness of their hearts. If they cut you off a socket and leave it extremely short you're not going to be able to use it. So they give you way more than enough just to help you out. Once you have it, trim the back. Take the wire stripper, flip them in there and prep the socket wiring. You'll notice that the wires themselves are several different colors. We have green and white, black and brown. They are color coordinated and the nice thing about this one is since it came off of a 91' Ford Explorer, you can just match the colors back up. If you got a universal socket, or one that is not specific for your vehicle, you will have to trial and error or refer to a wiring schematic to get them hooked up right. Once I have my three wires stripped, I'm going to go ahead and install my butt connectors on this end. You can just slide them right down on the wire. I'm going to use my terminal pliers. You can see these terminal pliers have three colored dots there, red, blue and yellow. They have numbers here which go with the thickness of the wire. You're going to want to use the corresponding color with the corresponding color butt connector. Slip it right on like so, make sure you got the metal and give it a squeeze. That is the proper method for installing a butt connector right there. I'm going to do the other two, and for my last one. I like putting all my butt connectors on one component at once,just so you're not trying to hold your component, hold your wire, hold your butt connectors and manipulate your pliers all at the same time. I'm going to take and apply heat to these later to shrink them up and seal them. That is the proper method for prepping your replacement socket.