Back at it once again....seems to take longer to document it than to actually do this..
These next photos show how to get into the back of the dash area. That area is covered by a shield above behind and to the rear of the upper part of the strut on the right side of the vehicle.
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Figures 10 and 11 are pictures from the instruction manual. The top one shows how to remove their "darts" or rivets from the splash shield which is in the upper quadrant of the right fender well. It is a bit of a 'bugger' to fish out once you get these rivets out. Figure 11 from the manual shows their recommendation for the mounting location of the receptacle in the dash. If you look closely at this photo, the 2WD/4WD switch is not in the same location as mine as well as the other ones I have seen.
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This picture shows a couple of holes with light coming through them. These are the two rivet holes in the black plastic at the right footwell area. That is where two of these rivets are located on the inside in the upper part of the right footwell area. If you look closely, the pivot for what I believe to be the accelerator or the brake pedal is visible.
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There is a wire tie which holds two wire harnesses to the frame below this shield. Simply cut it loose so that you can move the wires out of the way before you wiggle the shield out.
Another rivet is almost hidden behind the upper part of the strut spring. Once all these rivets are out, you can wiggle and bend the shield lightly to pull it to the rear and out of the fenderwell area.
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Since my drive selector switch would be adjacent to the winch remote receptacle if I put it in their recommended location, I chose another location to mount it. This is what my dash looks like and shows the location of the drive mode switch and power outlet.
After studying my dash area and checking the length of the wiring on the remote switch, I decided to locate the receptacle below the switches and in between the drive switch and power outlet. When I investigated the area behind the dash which were already there, I found that there was a "knock-out" of sorts, molded in the back of the dash from behind in the blank area.
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If I drilled to mount the receptacle where they recommended, I would lose the ability to ever mount another rocker switch in that location in the future. I copied the template from the instruction manual, and using a bit of 3-M blue painter's tape, I masked off the area where I would drill the mounting hole. If you copy or scan the template from the instruction manual, be sure to measure across the circle to make sure it is not smaller or bigger than 1". Sometimes printers/scanners enlarge or reduce copies just a bit. You don't want to drill the hole too large, or the mounting holes to be too far apart or too close together! Mine measured out exactly. I got lucky!
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Next, I fit the template to the exact center of where I planned to drill the hole in order to make the marks through the template to the plastic. I used a carbide tip engraving tool to mark the center of the holes before I drilled them. I removed the template so you could see what the marked holes looked like. Being that I punched the holes through the template, it was no problem to index and refit the template to the exact spot on the dash for the next step.
With the template attached to the dash with tape, I continued to punch holes around the outer circumference of the template at the 1" line. I punched the marks so closely together on the template that the circle was almost ready to fall out of the paper. But when I removed the template, the circle was easy to see on the dash. I then drilled the center hole in the dash where the receptacle was to mount with a 1/4" drill bit. Next, I stepped up to a 1/2" bit and enlarged the hole. Then I proceeded to open the hole up to the marks I made in the dash with a burr in my cordless drill. This made it easy to make the hole round, and stop grinding when the hole reaches the punch marks. Then I could test fit the receptacle in the hole so that I knew the hole would not be too big. I have a 1" hole saw from Dewalt, but it drills a hole a bit bigger than 1". I did not want the hole so big that the receptacle would wallow around in it. After a few test fits and a little fine grinding, the receptacle fit snugly, centered in the hole. Here's what my tooling looked like.
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Next, the holes need to be drilled for the mounting screws that hold the receptacle to the dash. Although they have been marked according to the template, I do not drill them in the dash until I fit the actual receptacle to the dash and make sure the marks are exactly centered in the holes in the receptacle. They were just a very bit wide, so I would have to drill the holes at a slight angle toward the center in order to have the mounting holes directly under the receptacle holes. I measured the outside of the screws provided with the kit to mount the receptacle to the dash. They were quite a bit smaller than 0.250" that the instructions say to drill into the dash. After drilling a 1/16" pilot hole in the center of the mounting holes, I used a 13/64" bit (.203") to drill the final holes. The screws fit perfectly in the mounting. The instructions said to use two screws, two washers, and two nuts to mount the receptacle. I guess they improved the kit since the instructions because they now have washer headed lock nuts, and eliminated the washers. The lock nuts are really better so that they won't inadvertently loosen up.
Here's what it looked like after installation of the receptacle with the mounting screws :
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And what it is like with the corded remote attached.
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