F-100 Stock LED Question

[Gothenburg]

Hey all. I purchased the F-100 about a month ago and am LOVING it so far. Got my father-in-law into crawling too and he just bought a TRX-4 Sport haha. We have been building "courses" in the house and having a blast. I did just run into a hiccup with the stock front LEDs though.

I think the front tires must have rubbed the connections loose, especially on turns, and the right parking light / lower / yellow connections both broke and disconnected right where the black cover ends at the light buckets.


After looking at it a bit, it looks like the connection is broken and may need to be soldered, or something like that. I'm not great with wiring. I'm guessing I can remove the stock black covering, solder in a tucked away position, and tape over for protection. Everything still works when I touch the wires to the buckets.

My question is: how can I best connect these LEDs back, and bend them out of the way so it doesn't happen again? I'm sure it's simple enough, but wanted to check if others may have had this issue with the lights on these Ascenders.

Such a solid truck though, and I LOVE it. Totally hooked.

Thanks in advance.

[TheLetterJ]

No need to bend the wires over if you just solder them 90° from the led.

[Gothenburg]

Great. Looks like it's time I get a soldering gun and give it a shot! It's a small space to work within at that light bucket, so my main concern is to not let the solder material blob together at the two leads, I think that's bad.

Or find an electrically inclined friend!

[Natedog]

I usually solder straight line, shrinkwrap, bend the leads as needed to get them out of the way and sometimes little E6000 over them to hold it all in place. LEDs are not super expensive if you need to buy another, quality LEDs are much better light emitters than the cheapys.

[Gothenburg]

Thanks, Nate. Do you think there is any disadvantage to soldering at an angle? Durability? I will probably go that route to keep things as close to the body as possible.

Then finish with E6000. Who knows, maybe I "mess up" and end up with new lights!

[Natedog]

You're welcome, either way is fine as long as there's room so that the tires don't rub it.