Trailer Brakes Arent Working After Replacing a Corroded 7 Way Plug

Question:

I have a professionally installed Curt Spectrum. It worked fine for awhile. The 7 pin plug corrosion caused lights and trailer brake to not work. I rewired the lights and brake away switch and they work fine but the the brake has power but shows the trailer is not connected...blue lights on on edges. What signal tells the controller the trailer is installed? Any help will be appreciated. The original wants to do a $1000 Rewire to fix it. The spectrum pamphlet shows one blue wire only to the trailer plug and the black trailer wire to ground I assume. The breakaway switch wooks fine. I spliced the blue trailer wire into the blue brake away switch but how does the porptional brake voltage get through?

asked by: David T

Expert Reply:

From what you described, it sounds like you may have something wired incorrectly, or a bad ground somewhere.

First you will want to use something like the Draw-Tite Circuit Tester Kit # 40376 to double check the black wire you grounded. Typically the black wire will be the 12 volt power wire, so I highly suggest double checking it. Flipping the 12 volt wire with the ground wire, which is usually the white wire, may be causing the brakes to act weird.

This will also lead me to the next suggestions as well. A bad ground can cause any number of weird things to happen. I suggest checking your ground connection coming from the plug and then the grounds on the brakes. Each brake should have its own designated ground just for good measure.

Last thing to check will be the blue wire. You may have this done properly, but your wording gave me pause so I figured I would address it. With that being said, the blue wire that supplies the signal to engage the brakes should still go to the brakes. The break-away switch should "T" off of this wire, as it should the 12 volt power wire as well. I made a diagram of what I mean as well. I also included an install video of the Hopkins Engager breakaway kit # 20400, just in case.

If this doesn't get you back up and running properly, let me know and we can try something else. I definitely don't want you to spend $1000 to get it fixed.

expert reply by: Lazer S