Troubleshooting the Trailer Lights on a 1999 Starcraft PUP
Question:
Okay, I am having a tough time wrapping my brain around this. This is going to be a little wordy, so here goes. The problem is this: My turn signals blink once and then shut off...This happens on both the trailer and tow vehicle. The same thing happens when I turn on my running lights. They turn on for less than a second and then turn off. So this is a mystery in of itself...But where it gets interesting is when I have the brakes activated key to note that my brake lights work fine, my signals and running lights work fine so long as I activate them when my brakes are on. The connector on the trailer is a 7 pin dual layer, and is then spliced to a 4 pin flat connector which is what the tow vehicle has. It looks like the wiring may have been adjusted/re-worked by previous owners. The ground is attached to the tongue of the trailer using a grounding screw and clamp. It does look like it may have been painted black at some point. Ive tried tracing the wires but once they go into the PUP, I loose sight of them and cannot access the wires except at each light fixture. Here is what I have noticed, the brown wire is only attached to the right rear tail light. Also connected to that is the green wire. The light is grounded to its own fixture. On the left tail light, there is a yellow and green wire attached. All the side and rear marker lights are also connected by a green wire. Whenever I can get the side and rear marker lights to work, they all go on, but also flash when the signal lights are activated. My question about the side lights, they are all C194 bulbs but have two wires connected to it...Both wires are black and are connected to the PUP with one green wire and the wire is white I assume is the ground...If the green wire is attached, should it only go on when the signal is activated as the brown wire is for the running lights? Anyways, this is my situation...I am nothing short of re-wiring this whole thing...But looks to be a daunting task. Any advice would be helpful. Nothing on Google has been able to replicate my specific situation.
asked by: Phil C
Expert Reply:
Thank you for all of the details that you provided. I believe that you gave me enough information to help you get everything working correctly.
The first thing that you will need to get taken care of are the grounds on your trailer. Grounds can be the cause of so many problems that it is typically what we recommend looking into right off the bat. Since you said it looks like the main ground was painted that could very well be the issue. Every ground on your trailer (including the lights) needs to be securely connected to a clean, bare metal surface on your trailer. Any paint or corrosion could definitely be causing problems. The grounds on your lights need to be grounded to the trailer frame as well.
You will also want to check the connectors on your tow vehicle and trailer to make sure that they are clean and free of corrosion and debris.
Another possibility is that you have too many lights on your trailer and it is overloading the 4-Way connectors from your tow vehicle to the trailer. If you have made sure all of the grounds are good (as stated above) and you are still having problems then you will want to try disconnecting a light on your trailer at a time to see if that fixes it.
I wouldn't get too caught up in the colors of the wiring on your trailer. Even though the Brown wire tends to be the tail/marker wire on a 4-Way flat, there is no rule that says that it HAS to be. It sounds like the Green wire on your trailer is the one carrying the tail/marker signals. Typically the White wire is Ground so that would mean the Green wire is running to all of the lights on your trailer - the same way that the tail/marker wire is run. If you check out the picture I attached of what a typical 7-Way looks like you can trace the Green wire to see which function it looks like it activates. You can also test the pins on your trailer connector this using a 12V power source like your tow vehicle battery for verification.
If you are still having problems after doing this troubleshooting let me know and I can help you troubleshoot further.
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