License Plate DIR Harness Install for Stepside

This is intended as a supplement for stepside models to @shifty`'s DIR harness install instructions. Recently, I bought 2 of @daveeasa 's DIR harnesses. I put one on my brother's 02 AC fleetside earlier this week. The other was for my dad's 02 AC stepside. General consensus was that the harness hadn't yet been installed on a stepside. So, I thought I'd share my experience.

On the fleetside (standard) models, the first thing is to open the tailgate and remove the driver taillight so you can mount the relay and drop the harness underneath. Those of you with stepsides know that you can't access your taillights that way. So, I crawled under the truck to look for a good mount point for the relay. I saw a metal cross brace supporting the center of the taillight assembly. It looked to be on a similar up-down line as the fleetside with respect to the undercarriage.

I zip tied the relay to the back of that brace making sure it would not interfere with removal and servicing of the taillight assembly.

That let the rest of the harness drop down almost directly onto the "rear combo connector" shown in shifty's instructions. Unlike the easily accessible "black arrow shaped tip" that holds the rear combo connector on the fleetside model, that tip on the stepside is slightly recessed by an overlapping piece of metal and in a 90-degre bend. I found that a set of curved needle nose pliers gave me the angle I needed to pop it loose.

Other than those two points, the stepside install is exactly the same as the fleetside. Hope this helps.

 

On a personal note, when I went to remove the license plate trim piece, I discovered that someone had installed it wrong. The license plate trim was underneath the passenger side bumper trim.

Fortunately, the bumper trim popped off just as easily and I was able to get it squared away.

Also, the stepside had a minor dent in the license plate well on the driver side that made it difficult to remove the trim. It came out with a little extra patience. I was careful to insert the trim tab back in that hole on reassembly.