Troubleshooting Brakes that Wont Work After Replacing Breakaway Cable

Question:

My trailer brakes work perfectly until I pulled the breakaway chain to replace cable and now I dont have brakes ? Could it be such a thing as a bad battery?

asked by: Sam H

Expert Reply:

Since you mentioned a battery, I assume you are talking about electric brakes. In that case, if you pulled the breakaway pin to replace the cable, and left it disconnected, it would only take about 10 to 15 minutes for your breakaway battery to fully drain since pulling the pin automatically applies the brakes and keeps them locked until the pin is replaced. If your brakes won't activate when the pin is pulled, try recharging your battery first.

However, if you're testing the brakes by depressing the brake pedal, they should still activate, as the breakaway is completely separate from this.

Some premium brake controllers, like the Tekonsha P2 # 90885 and P3 # 90195 don't allow harmful back feed to enter the controller. But, depending on which brake controller you have, it's possible that back feed from the locked up brakes caused some internal damage to your brake controller, which would explain why they aren't activating. Proportional brake controllers won't activate the brakes unless the vehicle is moving, so if you're testing while parked, the controller will not send the signal back to activate the brakes.

You'll need to test the blue wire on the controller to confirm. I've attached a helpful article that explains the testing process.

expert reply by: Carla M