i am trying to retrofit a 98+ power mirror switch into my 1988 firebird. i have found many threads on the subject, none of which have helped me at all.

the collors on my 4thgen power mirror switch are as follows:
ORANGE
BLACK
WHITE
GREY
YELLOW
BROWN/WHT
LT-BLUE
RED/WHT

the cloors on my thirdgen switch are as follows:
ORANGE
BLACK
LT-BLUE
WHITE
WHITE/BLK
LT-GREEN/BLK
LT-GREEN
YELLOW

what i am looking for is somone who has done this before to tell me which wires to connect to where, or to link me to a thread that tells me which wires to connect to where.

most of the threads i found upon searching were threads telling people to search. the others said "look at the wire diagrams". i have looked at the wire diagrams extensivly, (the 3rd gen one in my service manual and the 4th gen one HERE) i have mached up the wires by function and i usualy end up with a switch that will up/down the left mirror and left/right the left and right mirrors at the same time . i have at this point been without mirror control for about three months now.

i am posting this in "electronics" and "body/interior" for better results. also please do not tell me to search, i have searced, and searched, and searched........... however if you happen to know of a thread where this is covered in the detail i am needing and have a link to it i would realy appreciate it. thankyou.

 

tried contacting Redraif?

 

My bad, I was thinking 4th gen mirrors, i dont know what mirror switch Redraif used. Try contacting Bull, I think Bull used a 4th gen firebird mirror switch in a 4th gen console swap.

Most of the time 4th and 3rd gen wire colors do the same thing. I'm guessing orange, black, white, light blue, yellow are the same. Then i'm guessing red/white goes to white/black, Green goes to the light green, Brown/White goes to lightgreen/black. Totally guessing though.

 

thats almost completly correct as far as function goes. i tried matching them up function for function with no luck. i will PM bull, thankyou for that idea. i remember seeing pics of his install. nice. might do somthing like that when i switch to a stick.

 

hate to say i never got around to messing with the power on my mirror switches. My car was manual adjust from the factory. So I would have no adaptions that would have to be made... I will just run 4th gen all the way. The biggest reason I have not done the wiring as of yet is figuring out where to run the wires with everything so tight @ the mounting point.

If you do get the answers please post them back up here as we are converting Joes TA to the 4th gen mirrors and will be in need of the correct
wire mating...

 

I just finished this swap last week. I used a controller from another late model GM, but it had the same wiring setup as the 4th gen controller. The way in which they set up the wiring and switches is very different from the 3rd gen setup to the 4th gen setup. You need to do more than just connect one wire to another. I'll try to explain what has to be done:

At the power mirror switch (in the 3rd gen or 4th gen), there are 3 wires coming from each mirror plus a 12V power (orange) and a ground (black). At the mirror itself, there are 4 wires coming out. Somewhere in the wiring harness between each mirror and the controller, two of the wires merge into one. You need to cut this junction and run each of the two wires to the place where the controller is mounted. At that point you join two different wires coming from the mirror to go to one wire from the controller.

I hope this made sense. At some point soon I'll type out which color wires end up going where and maybe draw up a diagram for it too. The toughest part is getting to where those wires are joined together in the harness. The one from the passenger mirror is located behind the dash assembly and not easy to get to.

 

When I did my 4th gen switch install, I didn't have to do any of that at all! Sounds like a lot of extra work. It did take me 1-2 hours to figure everything out, and a lot of trial and error (thank goodness for Posi-Lok connectors...made the process immeasurably easier).

I am going to check my wiring after work today to answer Xophertony's question.

 

Bull, I'm interested in seeing how you wired it without splitting those wires that are joined coming from the power mirror motors. From the changes they made internally with the switches, I can't see another option. I'll try to get a diagram together of what I did also including the diagram of the internal switches in the controller.

 

Jeremy, check the other thread here:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...gen-power.html

I just posted my wiring setup. Before I started, the car had the unmolested 3rd gen switch and original wiring. I just cut off the old switch, wired in the 4th gen piece as shown, and was good to go with all the functions of the mirrors.