Troubleshooting Brake Pedal Of 2020 Ram 1500 Not Activating Trailer Brakes W/ Tekonsha PowerTrac

Question:

I purchased the tekonsha plug in wiring adapter 3024-p and the tekonsha power trac electronic brake controller 39523. When trailer is plugged in the green light is on and when pressing the manual override the brakes engage but when pressing the brake pedal the light stays green and trailer brakes do not engage. Tried unplugging and reconnecting all connections but the problem still persists?

asked by: Trevor D

Expert Reply:

I reached out to my contact at Tekonsha and there are a few things to check. Since you used the Plug-in Adapter to install the Tekonsha PowerTrac # 39523 in your 2020 Ram 1500 there are two posibilities.

The first is to double check that the factory trailer brake controller port is sending the stop light signal through the red wire to engage the brakes. You can test this by using a circuit tester like # PTW2993 on the red wire on the harness of the brake controller. If when you press the brake pedal you are getting 12v then the controller has an internal issue and will need to be replaced, or the pin on the adapter may be bent causing a connection issue.

If you are not getting 12v on the red wire then somewhere between the factory port and stop light switch there is a connection that has come loose. You can take your truck to a local Ram dealer to have them find the issue, or could bypass it by cutting the red wire from the harness of the # 39523 and using the circuit tester the find the stop light switch wire that only has power when the brakes are applied. Once you have found the correct wire you can use # 16-1-1 and two quick splices # SWC502905-1 to connect run between the stop light switch wire and the red wire of the trailer brake controller.

I included videos of the products mentioned for you to take a look at.