~~~886/894 Reverse Light Mod~~~
I will apologize in advance…. my mod "write up skillz" are a joke compared to the write up's some of the other dudes on the forum do. I probably left some stuff out, if you have a question, post here so I can answer it or edit the OP so it benefits everyone.
This is probably already found somewhere here in the 5th Gen forum, but I actually found out about this mod on a Tacoma forum:
886 Backup light mod - Tacoma World Forums
There was a thread recently that was asking for what the best reverse light replacement bulb was with some people recommending the LED replacements, and others recommending other stuff. I was extremely unhappy with the LED replacements that I have had in for the last year, and finally had enough. Along comes the "886" mod. The 886 bulb is a member of the 8xx bulb family that all pretty much look the same with the exception of the wattage and whether the connection is a straight plug or angle. The 886 itself is a 50 watt bulb… now before you go say, "woa woa woa there SoCalTrail…. 50 watts is a big much for the OEM wiring and light housing, are you crazy?" My response is, well. I might be crazy but that is for a discussion all of its own. Plenty of Tacoma, and Scion people have been doing this mod for years without a single reported problem that I could find. Also, I chose to go with the 894 bulb - same form factor as the 886 but only 37.5 watts (the OEM 921 bulb is 18 watts). I feel that this is a good compromise and should never produce and issue whatsoever. Namely because your reverse lights are never left on for more than a couple minutes at a time, and also because 37.5W (roughly 3 amps give or take depending on your voltage) is low enough not to worry me a whole bunch, ANNNNNND I'm willing to take the risk. :decision:
So onto the mod itself.
Remove the OEM fog light bulb plug - you can access it by popping those little panels off on the inside of the rear, right behind the tail lights. The fog light bulb holder is just that, a bulb holder, no wires attached. The holder itself has contacts that get the power from the whole assembly. Give the holder a little counter clockwise twist and the bulb comes right out.
Pull the old 921 out and get ready to prep your new high performance custom reverse light bulbs :caked:
You will notice the bulb has to long "legs" that connect the glass part.
You want to take your pliers and carefully either "pinch" the wire leg off the flat part (you would have to see one in your hand to understand this). The wire is lightly spot welded to the flat leg and will give way easily if you induce a sort of side shear on the wire and the leg. This is hard to describe. Bottom line, you wanna separate the glass bulb part with its two wire legs from the rest of the assembly.
Leaves you with this:
Now you have to make it fit in the 921 bulb holder. No prob!!! The guys on the Tacoma forum did some crafty little bends on the legs and got it secure in their holders but I could never get it secure enough so I went about it a different way. I took a straight 18-22 ga wire butt connector, cut it in half and used this. The outside diameter of these are all different so you may want to check the fit in the 921 bulb holder first, also, if you have the butt connectors that have the vinyl covering, these will work, just carefully cut the plastic off like I did. After I had a little bare metal cylinder, I cut it in half.
From here I got out the soldering iron and tinned up the little barrel so it was plumb full of solder then, one by one I stuck the wire legs of the 894 bulb into the hot solder and let it cool. Bingo!
The barrels were actually a little too snug for the 921 holder so I just stuck it in a vise and gave it a very slight squeeze then the bulb popped right in, very secure!
I am not sure about the polarity of the bulb, either I got right the first time or it didn't matter because mine light up on the first go around. Now just stick this little guy back in the back of the tail light assy., turn the ignition on, truck in reverse and be amazed!!!!!
Actual photos of the results to come in the next post. Stand by.
