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eorI noticed a hole in the dash of the van where there wan't anything in our prior van. Some research revealed that in some models there was a map light in the dash. Apparently, a previous owner had ripped it out and not covered the hole. These days people are always filling in spaces on the vans with new accessories, so it didn't take long to find a USB kit to fill in the space.
I got the kit from Go Westy. It's pretty simple with a face plate that looks 3D printed, fortunately the angle it sits at on the dash makes it mostly invisible because it's not a smooth surface.
All I had to do was fish around behind the dash to find the wires that had been disconnected from the map light, connect up the bits and push the face plate into the dash. The wires were right there, behind the dash, with no protection at all to keep them from shorting to each other or to the metal dash. This is how fires happen people. The kit comes with heat shrink tubing to cover the connections. Not my favorite thing to rely on heat shrink tubing, but then again, it's way more electrical insulation than there was before. Pushing the connectory in was a bit of a struggle, but with a little bending it popped in and I was able to get it pretty flat against the dash. I tested it out and it does work. Of note: the map light circuit appears to be unswitched, I may find it necessary to change it over to a switched circuit if I leave the van parked for long periods with the battery connected.
Edited to add:
While putting the glove box back in, I decided I didn't like how things were just hanging all over the place behind the glove box. I plan to use some of that space to hold other items and I always like things to be neat and orderly. The wires weren't long enough to mount the small voltage converter to the body metal, but they were long enough to mount to the dash. I hate making extra holes in anything, so I removed one of the screws that screws into the dash to hold the glove box latch bracket (just below where the new socket is). I replaced that screw with a small bolt, long enough to allow me to anchor one of the tabs of the converter. The new sequence outside to in is bolt head, outside washer, bracket, dash, converter, washer, nut. Once that was mounted and sturdy I wire tired the feed to the converter to the silver socket wire behind the dash, that holds that side up and out of the way of the glovebox swing. Now only the other USB socket hangs down into the glovebox, as it's supposed to. At some point I may make a bracket to mount it to the edge of the glovebox, but I figure I'm going to have the glovebox in and out a lot while working behind the dash, so I'll leave it loose for now. After getting it in the sun, I realize I still have some cleaning to do on the inside of the glovebox, a PO had put some padding in the bottom (or maybe that was OEM) but it was gross and the only part still functional was the adhesive, which is miraculously effective despite its age.
Here is a pic of the kit, with the face plate already attached to one of the USB connectors. I don't have a good pic of before and after. Maybe I'll addd another pic later.
I got the kit from Go Westy. It's pretty simple with a face plate that looks 3D printed, fortunately the angle it sits at on the dash makes it mostly invisible because it's not a smooth surface.
All I had to do was fish around behind the dash to find the wires that had been disconnected from the map light, connect up the bits and push the face plate into the dash. The wires were right there, behind the dash, with no protection at all to keep them from shorting to each other or to the metal dash. This is how fires happen people. The kit comes with heat shrink tubing to cover the connections. Not my favorite thing to rely on heat shrink tubing, but then again, it's way more electrical insulation than there was before. Pushing the connectory in was a bit of a struggle, but with a little bending it popped in and I was able to get it pretty flat against the dash. I tested it out and it does work. Of note: the map light circuit appears to be unswitched, I may find it necessary to change it over to a switched circuit if I leave the van parked for long periods with the battery connected.
Edited to add:
While putting the glove box back in, I decided I didn't like how things were just hanging all over the place behind the glove box. I plan to use some of that space to hold other items and I always like things to be neat and orderly. The wires weren't long enough to mount the small voltage converter to the body metal, but they were long enough to mount to the dash. I hate making extra holes in anything, so I removed one of the screws that screws into the dash to hold the glove box latch bracket (just below where the new socket is). I replaced that screw with a small bolt, long enough to allow me to anchor one of the tabs of the converter. The new sequence outside to in is bolt head, outside washer, bracket, dash, converter, washer, nut. Once that was mounted and sturdy I wire tired the feed to the converter to the silver socket wire behind the dash, that holds that side up and out of the way of the glovebox swing. Now only the other USB socket hangs down into the glovebox, as it's supposed to. At some point I may make a bracket to mount it to the edge of the glovebox, but I figure I'm going to have the glovebox in and out a lot while working behind the dash, so I'll leave it loose for now. After getting it in the sun, I realize I still have some cleaning to do on the inside of the glovebox, a PO had put some padding in the bottom (or maybe that was OEM) but it was gross and the only part still functional was the adhesive, which is miraculously effective despite its age.
Here is a pic of the kit, with the face plate already attached to one of the USB connectors. I don't have a good pic of before and after. Maybe I'll addd another pic later.
