Trailer light gurus???

[Cheeseburger]

New trailer and when i put my head lights on my electric brakes get full power, also when i turn my right turn signal on almost all my trailer lights flash.
This is after i have f....d around with them trying to get things to work and it is getting sickening.
As usual all trailer places are closed when i have a problem.



When i do not have the trailer hooked up everything is normal.............when the head lights are off everything is normal.

TIA

 

[n20junkie]

when the headlights are off is the brakes working correctly, if so i would say that you hav a ground wire in the wrong spot, thats the only thing that would explain all the problems
Grant

 

[Cheeseburger]

Originally posted by n20junkie
when the headlights are off is the brakes working correctly, if so i would say that you hav a ground wire in the wrong spot, thats the only thing that would explain all the problems
Grant

Yes the brakes work ok with the headlights off...........fun stuff........lol.

 

[n20junkie]

time to get out a multimeter and have a helper watch it, check all the terminals and see what gets power in the different phases of operation, do it with everything off, and check all the terminals on the tow vehicle, there should be no hot terminals unless you have a constant power feed to the trailer for accesories like interior lights, then hit the brakes, see what terminal turns on, then the signals, so on, then correct the wiring on the tow vehicle if needed, if all is good, then look at the trailer and see if the correct wires are in the correct spot, sometimes the colors of the wires don't mean the same thing, blue is almost always brakes, but i have seen all the other colors to mean pretty much anything, especially on 7 terminal plugs.
grant

 

[Cheeseburger]

Been there all ready..........all the trailer wires are tucked away in the frame.
Everything on the tow vehicle works as it should using a test light.
When the headlights get turned on it goes wacko.

 

[n20junkie]

what kind of tow vehicle, is it a pre wired hareness on the tow vehicle, what kind of trailer
grant

 

[Cheeseburger]

Full size chev van..........it was not factory pre wired.
Open car hauler.

 

[n20junkie]

waht did youuse for a ground connection on the tow vehicle, is it a ground for the tailights, or did you go to a known good body ground.

 

[EightSecV6]

your best bet is to have a buddy with a known working tow vehicle and pin his out right next to yours.

 

[Cheeseburger]

Ok thanks guys.............have some other problems going on right now as well..............when i try and edit my dfi program i keep getting ''echo mismatch''..........looks like the track trip is going to be cancelled tomorrow.
Thinking i should run it in dos, but i do not know the commands.

 

[EightSecV6]

restart in dos

type cd\calmap THEN
type calmap OR
type calmap62

 

[Cheeseburger]

Originally posted by EightSecV6
restart in dos

type cd\calmap THEN
type calmap OR
type calmap62

Still does not work..............maybe i will have ultimate tuning ability with just the fuel pressure reg tomorrow.

 

[Nashty]

This doesn't match up with all your problems but if your brakes are getting full power, they're not hooked up to the correct wire. They are hooked up to a lighting circuit, probably your running lights.

You using a 7 pin connector right?

 

[Cheeseburger]

Hi, i am actually running a 6 way round with one open pin.
When i bought it, it had a 4 way flat and i added the power wire for the brake controller.
Took it off my truck and installed it the same way as my truck.
I actually cut the power wire for the brake controller and my brakes would still stay on............something is not right.........i think i will have to take the trailer back to get it sorted out.

Also i managed to look up a whole bunch of dos commands on the net and got it to work........made changes no problem.
Only thing is, i do not know how to shut it down.......and if i do, will it start back up in dos without all the commands and farting around?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Maybe??

Hook the laptop to the brake circuit on the trailer... maybe the lites will run in DOS!!!
Start over on the trailer wiring.. Just because it's all "tucked away in the frame" , doesn't mean it has no problems...

 

[n20junkie]

i will give you a trick we use on large aircraft, that will work for "shooting wires" on your trailer, get you some of those great squeeze on spade terminals from napa,the ones that you crimp on a wire to take power off, but can remove easily, they are used alot for car stereo installs, then get you a female connector to match, 3 feet of wire and an aligtor clip, ( crimp the female connector on one end of the wire and the aligator clip on the other, this is your test lead) crimp on the male spade terminals on all the wires just before they go into what ever they power, first check your ground by using a multimeter from the ground pin on the plug to the trailer, if thats good then check all the other pins to ensure you don't have a shorted wire, then pick your first powered acessory, plug the test lead in to that napa crimp on connector and alifator clip that thing to a good trailer chassis ground, and again go up front and check from trailer ground to the correct pin for that accesory, that test lead just turned the trailer into a big circuit, and if the correct pin has continuity, then check all the other pins to ensure there is not a short, and check all of the circuits that way, if all is good on the trailer, than start looking at that van wires.
Grant

 

[Cheeseburger]

Thanks for the tip...........will check into it tomorrow.

 

[Cheeseburger]

FYI

I found the problem..........turns out the ground and electric brakes were reversed on the trailer.

 

[n20junkie]

those dam grounds, i thought it would be that, a ground is the only thing that causes stuff to go crazy like that, its amazing how electricity can go threw positive wires and stuff, ever had a bad ground to the headlights on a GN, it does some really neat stuff.
Grant