Corvette C6 Z06 Battery Charger Installation
Corvette C6 Z06 CTEK Battery Charger Installation
This is a quick and easy way to install the Ctek Battery Charger in the two rear compartments of your car and have 1/2 inch of the AC power cable right above your license plate. Everything is in the car, all you need to do is plug it in when you want the car to be charged.
Tools Needed
T15 Torx bit
1) Open your rear hatch and unscrew the 4 holding caps that hold the rear carpet in place.
2) There are two plastic push fasteners in the center of the carpet on the receiver for the latch. Just pull straight out and they will pull out.
3) Once the carpet is pulled back, on the right side (passenger side) of the rear portion of the tub (almost behind the first taillight to the right of your license plate), is a large rubber plug with a single wire running through it. Pop out the plug, leaving the wire in it in place.
4) Using the T15 Torx bit, remove the screw on the first taillight to the right of your license plate. Carefully pull the taillight out of the socket, being very careful not to dislodge the clip the torx screw threads into. Let the taillight gently hang on out of your rear bumper, or you can disconnect it at the plug and set it aside. Either one should be fine.
5) Next, lift open the left compartment (one without the battery), this is where your Ctek will rest. Take both the AC plug end and the Ctek plug (that will be plugging into the battery) and gently fish the full length of them under back side of the plastic bezel the surrounds the compartment. You are going to need every inch so do not leave much slack in the compartment.
6) Run both of the wires along the back of your car, behind the carpet, under the hatch receiver, the Ctek charging lead goes into the battery compartment in the same way the you routed it out of the other compartment (under the plastic surround bezel).
7) For the AC power cable, fish it through the hole where the rubber plug was. Using one hand, reach in through the taillight that you removed and grab the plug and run it down through the hole above your license plate. It is a tight fit, but will come through if you angle it correctly. Let it hang out about an inch. The rubber stopper that was in the hole will need to be cut halfway to the center, be careful not to cut the existing wire that is in the middle of it. This splice will allow you you insert the ac power cable and then put the plug back into the hole it was removed from. After you get the plug routed out of the rear of the car, go ahead and make the cut and reinsert the plug with both wires in it.
Go ahead and connect the negative and positive leads on the battery terminals. You can either remove the existing nuts (will lose power to your car) or run to your local hardware store and buy two nuts to screw right on top of the existing nut so that you will not have to disconnect battery power.
9) All done, neaten everything up…put the carpet back and you are done. You now a have a nice full self enclosed battery solution. All you need to do is plug in the car. Just do not forget to unplug it before you go on a drive
Corvette C5 Headlight Gear Rebuild
Parts needed:
brass gear kit
10mm socket
13mm socket
1/4 drive ratchet
magnetic pick-up tool
phillips screwdriver
You also need a brass gear kit (you can get this from Rodney Dickman) at www.rodneydickman.com (yes I know he sells Fiero parts...trust me he sells the gears for the C5 headlights also) you can order online or call him. he is a super nice guy and ships the stuff Priority Mail..
Ok, lets get started. Turn the headlights on or manually crank up the bad light. If you turned the lights on you can unplug the bad light and turn the other light off so as not to kill the battery.
Remove the black plastic headlight surround, 3 Phillips head screws. Now look inside the opening and you will see there are basically 5 nuts/bolts that hold the assembly in place. the following pics show the locations.
After these bolts /nuts are removed lift the assembly out and you have this.
Turn the whole piece on its side and you will see the round cover which is secured with 3 little screws:
Remove these screws and take off the cover. You will probably see something that looks like this.
Make note of how you remove things and clean all that stuff out of there so it will look like this.
Now install the new gears and replace the cover. 
Install is the reverse of removal. Plug everything back in and you should have this.
C5 Corvette LED Tailight Halo Mod
Parts needed:
- about 2' of Small gauge wire (I used 24ga stranded thin)
- (4) 5-packs of 470 ohm .5 watt resistors ($4 at RadioShack)
Tools needed:
- Voltmeter
- Wire stripper
- Solder/solder gun
- Scissors
- Phillips head screwdriver
- black marker
Here's the procedure for 1 light:
1. remove the light from the bumper
2. remove the rear panel from the light itself: remove the 4 phillips head screws and use scrape away the silicone seal from the panel on the back. NOTE: be gentle when removing the screws or you will damaged the plastic. Then slowly pry it loose with your hands (no extra leverage is necessary) It should look like this:
3. Cut the 2 white wires in the center as close to the circuit board as possible. One is positive and one is ground. To find out which is which, strip about 1/4" off each, go back to the car and plug it back into the socket. Turn on the parking lights and use the voltmeter to identify the positive and ground. use the sharpie to label the ground wire.
4. You'll see 4 wires going to the sides of the light: red, black, yellow and orange. each of the 4 LEDs gets its own pair of wires (there are 2 per side) Cut the wires on both sides as close to the circuit board as possible and strip 1/4" insulation from them. The polarity is as follows:
red and orange are power wires
yellow and black are ground wires
twist the black and yellow ends together and solder. Install resistors on the ends of the orange and red wires. Use your 24ga wire to join the power wires on both sides and the ground wires for both sides. Then connect them to the main power/ground white wires you labeled earlier.
5. Make sure your connections are soldered and insulated with electrical tape then test. Make sure your socket is installed in the correct direction.
Created by Radio Flyer from the Corvette Forum