Raptor Performance Shift Light (Cont'd)
Now that the wire leads are on the passenger side, we can concentrate on getting access to the PCM. This requires you to remove the passenger side kick panel as well as the door sill. The door sill is held in place by the same friction clips as the top of the pillar panel. It you have an OEM Interior Panel Tool (pry bar that fits the plastic retainer pins) you can use this to pry up on the sill getting as close to the clip locations as possible. Some of these clips might stay with the sheet metal, if so, remove them and replace them on the sill or you will never get them lined up while replacing the sill. This will allow you to remove the kick panel. There is one plastic retainer pin. Remove this pins, grasp the panel near the sill location and pull forward, there is a spring clip that holds it in place here. Put the sill and the kick panel in the back seat, out of the way. This will expose the location for the PCM. There are a couple of OEM connectors mounted to a black bracket. Remove the screws from the bracket, disconnect the fittings and move then out of the way.
The vehicle PCM is now exposed and visible. There is a bolt that holds the massive plug in place on the PCM. Remove this bolt. As you unscrew the bolt, the PCM connector will slow be forced apart. Once it is completely separated from the PCM, swing it off to the side and look directly at the connector area of the plug. You will see 2 locking tabs on either side of the plug. These hold the black plastic wire cover onto the back side of the plug. A blade screwdriver will release these and you will expose all the wires that feed into the PCM unit.
The Green/White wire that goes to Pin #26 is the coil lead from coil pac one or cylinder number one. The green wire from the shift light wire harness need to tap into this wire. Utilize one of the slice connectors supplied leaving enough space between the PCM and the splice to squish the wires into the mass of wires going into the plug. This will allow you to relocate and replace the plastic cover and clean the PCM plug back up to stock condition.
Replace the PCM connector and use the bolt to tighten the connector back up. This will slowly pull the plug together. Don't over tighten this bolt, there is no need. Right next to the PCM is a ground connection that we are going to utilize. Bare about 1/2 inch of the black wire from the shift light wire harness. Loosen the ground bolt off and wrap the black ground wire around the bolt. Tight the ground bolt back up and you should a very good ground connection.
The remaining red wire is going to be the power lead that we will tap into a switched 12V line. The plug closest to the fire wall on the bracket that we removed earlier has the perfect location for this splice. Splice into the side of the plug that goes up under the dash.
Reconnect all of the OEM connectors, reattach them to the mounting bracket and replace the bracket. The wiring work is done and we now need to replace the kick panel and sill plate. Carefully line up the kick panel so the plastic retainer pin matches up with it's mounting hole. Tap the pin with a rubber hammer and snug up the panel. Replace the sill making sure the 2 alignment tabs match their respective holes in the panel near the back seat.
Reconnect the batteries negative terminal and you are ready to test the light. The first time you power up, the light will do a self test that tells you how you have it set. the first series of flashes will indicate how you have the 1000x RPM set. We had ours set at 5700, we saw 5 blinks indicated 5000. There will be a pause for a couple of seconds, then the second series of blinks will be the 100x RPM setting. Ours blinked 7 times, confirming 5700 RPM. The shift light will only do this test after there has been changes made.
There was nothing left to do but admire and test the light. We warmed up the car and took it out for a drive. Got onto one of the collector roads, made sure the coast was clear, traction lock off and hit the happy pedal. We never took our eyes off the road relying on the fact that this light was supposed to tell us when to shift. The red LED combination is so bright there is no missing it. It went off, we power shifted into second and drifted sideways. The threat of over revving or hitting the rpm limiter is gone. This is a very good modification for the weekend 1/4 mile racer. If you are inclined to race, do it at the track where it is safe and controlled.
We are very impressed with this product. The finish quality if great, the adjustability is extensive and we highly recommend the Raptor Shift light.