I helped a friend today install some Navigator Mirrors on his 04 Expedition, the powerfolding needed to be wired to a switch like I did on mine.

I did his setup exactly like I did mine using the write-up that locosol96 made http://home.comcast.net/~locosol96/E...rorInstall.pdf .

First we wired everything to make sure they would fold. We wired everything and it worked we just left it as is, then went to go grab some food.

When we came back it would not work no more, the mirrors were stuck in the folded position. We checked all the wiring everything was the way we left it but they won't fold or unfold. We tried another switch and then the wires that ran from the battery just got REALLY HOT. Other then that nothing happened! What could be the problem? Is it possible that the powerfolding motors were fried somehow?

The only thing I didn't do that was stated on the write-up was install an inline fuse. I didn't do it on mine and I've been jsut fine.

 

It shouldn't have done anything to the mirrors unless somehow the switch was defective and kept the power to them while you went for lunch. I did Code3 outfitting for quite a few years and though I never ever had a short, I was A FIRM believer in fusing everything! If the wire from the battery gets really hot when you put the new switch in, obviously you have a short. One thing I will say, whenever I do any switch install or wiring, I ALWAYS use the type of switches that have the blades rather than the screws because then they are easily removable but also are protected because you always use the insulated blade connectors. Also, a BC can't come loose, where screws CAN come loose. You should be able to disconnect the wires off of the mirror and simply jump juice directly to the 2 mirror wires and then reverse them. If it doesn't work either way (pretty simple actually), you probably have a fried motor (or 2).

 

Did you use a DPDT Momentary On - Off - Momentary On switch for the install ?
Need to ask, as you are changing stuff from the install.

Is the replacement switch the exact same switch ?

Start by testing the power fold to each mirror. by applying power to the leads, if the mirror does not move, reverse polarity.

 

Well on the bag of the switch it says DPDT switch, it just has the feature for on and off. We bought the switch at radioshack.

Do you mean connect the powerfolding wires directly to the battery?

 

There is another thing in the instructions in the URL above that you did not follow. You need a DPDT Momentary ( on/off/on ) switch.
This is in the material list at the top of the second page.

Yes, the 2 leads to the power fold motor, 1 way they will fold in, reverse the polarity and they will fold out.

If you had a DPDT on/off/on ( non momentary ) switch, chances are you burnt out the power fold motors, and they are shot. Jumpering them ( with a 10A fused jumper wire ) to the battery will tell if they are trash.

 

so do I connect both cables (one is for the fold in and one is for the fold out) to the positive on the battery? or one to the positive and one to the negative? the cable I use to connect them should have an inline fuse?

so the switch being a dpdt on/off is what caused the problem?

 

So this is the switch I need?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Marin...ssoriesQ5fGear

 

You are acting as the switch shown on page 7 of the directions above. This diagram shows that the momentary switch just reverses polarity to the power fold motor. The fold in and fold out are due to a power fold module that controls the on / off of the mirror, and that the factory switch only moves 1 way.


Just put the fused jumpers one side to the neg, other to the pos, if it does nothing ( i.e. mirror is stuck folded in ) reverse the polarity on the leads, and it should fold out if the motor is still good. Cycle it a few times.
You should, if you damaged the power fold motor ( i.e. the wires get hot ) hooking it directly to the battery unfused could have very bad results. Best to have a 10A fuse in the jumper.

Could be, need to do the test and find out if the motor is shot. If it is, the fuse in the jumper should blow, if they are still good the mirrors should fold in and out.

 

Okay, I understood most of it, but what exactly do I need to do to "reverse polarity"?

There's two wires coming from each mirror one wire for the fold in and one for the fold out I then connected both of them together to make one wire. So there are 2 wires one for the fold in and one for the fold out. Do I connect a jumper cable to each one and connect the powerfold in cable to the postive and the powerfold out to the negative? Then reverse the order and they should work? What if nothing happens?

 

2 wires from a mirror

Put fused jumpers on both of them.

Hook 1 to pos
Hook 1 to neg

If the mirror does not move ( i.e. folded in ) reverse the wires above ( reversing the polarity to the power fold motor ).

This is what you did with the install on one mirror, or the same color wire from both mirrors ?

If you know you have power, and the polarity both ways nothing happens, the power fold motor is junk, you trashed it with the wrong switch.

I cannot say this enough ( due to you thinking fuses are optional ) make sure the jumpers you use on the mirror have fuses on BOTH wires, and no larger than a 10A ( actually single mirror test, 5 A should work ).

The fold in and fold out are just which lead has power on it to make the mirror move that direction for your install. The other would have ground ( what the DPDT Momentary switch is doing ).

 

This is how I wired the mirrors.



I'll text them out this wednesday and tell you what happens.

 

I think they are trashed! Like in the picture above I connected the pink to the positive on the battery and the green to the negative! Nothing happened no spark on the battery or anything... Now that I think about it when I left the switch on "on" I think it was feeding power to the motors which overheated them!

 

That's what happened. Like Scully said, the DPDT switch that you used was the downfall. It needed to be DPDT, MOMENTARY.