I recently started having problems with my brake lights not cutting off on my 02 Explorer even when the vehicle was shut off. I had to unhook the battery each time I parked or the brake lights would drain my battery. After some review of these forums I found that it was likely to be the brake switch. I checked it out and it was really hot and melting the connecter to the switch. I then went to AutoSure and bought the new switch and harness was included. The switch looks the same and the connector on this harness looks slightly different, but I assume it will work the same.

My main question is what is the proper way to change out the harness with the connecter. There is not that much free wire under there to work with so I don't want to mess anything up. The instructions included says to solder and heatsink the new connecter, but I dont currently have either of these. Is there another viable way to connecter this until I can get some solder?

Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance!

 

Depending on the gauge (thickness) of the replacement wire , you can usually use "butt connectors" where you strip the two ends you want to connect , place them inside the butt connector and squeeze the connector ends tightly and that will usually work.
Would be a good idea to inquire at the auto supply store and they should have whatever size your wire requires and sometimes if you don't have the crimping tool you can use a pair of vise grips to crimp the connector ends. If you have little or no experience crimping wire ends together a few practice tries usually removes all the mystery.