DIY- Installing Hood Light Harness On 18.5 Ram 1500 and 19+ Classics

[Ashton]

Hi all, just want to thank everyone in the community with all the great threads and info that is shared on here. It gives me great pleasure to give back to the community with something no one has posted a DIY about. So without further ado, here's the DIY for adding the oem hood light option for 18.5 Ram 1500's (possibly 2500/3500 but can’t say for sure) and 19+ Classic Rams. Most Ram owners were upset to see that for whatever reason, FCA has decided to remove the harness prep for the hood light option after about mid 18 model year. So I saw a lot of guys wiring in strip leds and all sorts of other things but I like the simplicity of the OEM design. So determined I took it upon myself to figure it out. So I went to my local u-pull and found some base model 4th gen rams that didn’t have the light option itself but did have the harness prep we are after. This one happened to be a 2017 Ram 1500 with the hemi engine (which was long gone along with the whole front end). I mention the engine because the ecodiesel harness is differently oriented and if you want all the clips and look OEM its best to get the right one for your truck's engine option. I think only the ecodiesel is different, while the pentastar and hemi are the same.

 

[Ashton]

So I patiently unwrapped the hood prep harness and followed the positive cable straight down to the main connector below.

 

[Ashton]

I marked the terminal location where the wire goes (female half of the connector.)

 

[Ashton]

Unfortunately for me someone already took the male end of the main harness and hacked up the rest. So I chopped of the rest of the wires except the red wire and black wire that go to the hood light.

 

[Ashton]

In my area 4th gen Rams seem to be super scarce in the junk yards, so I scrounged around the yard some more and found some old rams. The happened to 2003 ram 1500's that did actually have the hood light option (possibly standard back then) but most had corroded terminals. The connectors themselves were good and the corrugated sheaths and clips were salvageable. (Way better than this modern crummy push pins that seem to break after one time opening.) One of them had one upper harness that was mint thankfully but the entire box was shot (where the bulbs are). The boxes are 99.99% usually corroded to crap or the lens is busted etc. So I took the harnesses and a bunch of short pig tails for extras in case I need it in the future. If you are only able to find the old rams/other cars with the hood light, just know the color of the wires are not the same as the 4th gens but all the connector sockets are the same. 3rd gen is grey/red tracer and black/blue tracer where as the 4th gen is simply black and red. I will leave a pic down below for what other vehicles had the same hood light option. The part number of the one I used is 56051176AC.

 

[Ashton]

56021441AC Applications

1997-2007 Jeep Wrangler
1998-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee
1998-2003 Dodge Ram Van 2500/3500
1998-2003 Dodge Neon
1998-2001 Dodge Dakota
1998-2001 Dodge Durango
1998-2017 Ram 1500/2500/3500

 

[Ashton]

So thinking about it I thought to myself ram wouldn't make a completely new main harness because that would cost more money for an assembly line change. So I deduced that they probably just de-pinned the female end of the main connector and put a dummy plug in it keep the moisture out. So I checked the harness on my truck, lo and behold I was right. Just a little blue rubber plug was on my harness in place of the terminal.

 

[Ashton]

So now we need to look at the donor harness. I would suggest getting that harness plug when you source this hood light harness from the junk yard so you can practice to de-pin it easily at a table or something. For those of you who don't know how to unpin it I uploaded pics for instructions so you can avoid damaging anything.

 

[Ashton]

So I found it easiest to rotate the grey clip until it lines up the tooth on the side of the body. Then you can simply lift it off, you can gently pry it with a small screw driver.

 

[Ashton]

Then it’s a simply matter to gently pry off the white terminal cover.

 

[Ashton]

Now locate the terminal you want and find the little black lock and gently push it down. The terminal will pop right out with a small pull on the wire without damaging the weather proof seal. If you are worried about damaging the one you want, try to practice on another terminal first before you try the one you want.

 

[Ashton]

Once de-pinned it’s a simple matter of unplugging the harness on your truck from the male side (I tried to do it without unplugging it but it's just insanely hard). Some guys may benefit from taking off the top of the air filter box to make more room. I didn't and had to perform some acrobatic moves to get it done. Getting the little blue rubber plug out is a real PITA but a small hook tool or small flat screw driver it should come out. Just take your time on this part. You do have to repeat the same process you did to de-pin the donor harness again on the harness of the truck. This is why it's best to make sure you get the donor harness connector to get some practice so you don't break the one on your truck. If you don't pull off the white terminal cover you can't slide the terminal into the connector to lock it in place. Note the orientation of the terminal before you try to lock it in. Then you just push in the wire until you hear the terminal click in and that's it! Snap back the white terminal cover and the grey locking lever and reconnect the two harness halves. *note if you didn’t unplug your battery be careful because the red wire will be live once you plug the harness back together. It’s a constant 12v source not keyed!

 

[Ashton]

As for the black ground wire Ram simply used a factory splice into the existing body ground circuit. So simple enough, I did not want to cut anything on my truck's harness. So the black donor wire I simply cut it off at the splice and then used the other half of the wire to extend it and sealed it with heat shrink. Then you can simply crimp an eyelet onto the black wire and use the body ground right there on the inner fender.

 

[Ashton]

You can decide if you care about 2 random wires exposed or if you want a cleaner OEM look like me, I did the following. I used the other remaining harnesses corrugated tubing and covered the two wires and took one small black loop clip and found a pre drilled hole in the inner fender to tie the cable more securely.

 

[Ashton]

So finally mounting the box, I just used the push pin that I removed to mount the connector on the firewall. Works perfect. I threw on two strips of double sided tape just make it a bit more secure. My truck didn't have the cut out on the insulation so I carefully made a small square cut in the middle and started carefully expanding it until I was the right size and shape for the light to poke through

 

[Ashton]

Instead of ordering the stock crappy incandescent light box I ended up ordering a led version from that jungle website... link below

https://www.amazon.com/POPMOTORZ-Courtesy-Assembly-Compatible-68395126AA/dp/B0BCKD2M8X/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=3SJ895M5JBTE8&keywords=ram+led+under+hood+light+pop+motors&qid=1697054662&s=automotive&sprefix=ram+led+under+hood+light+popmotirs%2Caps%2C513&sr=1-3-catcorr

 

[Ashton]

There you have it, once you connect the upper harness and the light box; you now have a functioning hood light! It is seriously bright and I'm so pleased with this mod and it pretty much costs nothing about 35 bucks total with the led box. I hope you guys enjoy this mod as much as me! Cheers