Installing New 4 Way Connector on Trailer with Yellow, Green, Yellow/Brown and Green/Brown Wires

Question:

Some one cut the plug in part of my trailer wiring. I have a green and a green with a brown streak going to one side and a yellow and a yellow with a brown streak going to the other side. I bought a new plug in with green, yellow, brown, and white. How would those 4 colored wires hook to the previously mentioned at the top 4 different colored wires? Would the green hook to green and the yellow to yellow? But what about the white and brown? Thanks

asked by: Steve M

Expert Reply:

It sounds like your trailer had a wishbone style wiring harness. A wishbone harness splits the running light circuit at the connector so you do not have to run a jumper from one side of the trailer to the other side. To replace the plug you're going to be best served by using a wishbone harness like the Wesbar Wishbone Wiring Harness with 4-Pole Flat Trailer Connector - Trailer End - 18" Long # 002402- you can still use a regular 4 way, but it will be more work.

Using a wishbone harness will allow you to connect the white to white (or create a new ground wire), green to green, yellow to yellow, brown (next to the greeen) to green/brown and other brown (next to the yellow) to yellow/brown. If you're going to use a 4 wire harness, you'll only connect the brown to one of the multi-colored wires and then you will need to run a jumper wire across the trailer and connect it to the other multi-colored wire.

I've linked a few of our wiring help articles that you might want to refer back to if you run into any issues during the installation.

expert reply by: Erik B