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oldtimer57.
What about the WHITE wire from the trailer connector to the trailer frame??? Has to be there. Normally BCB lights use the frame for a ground. Normally the trailer connector white wire is connected to a screw welded to the frame, and a wire from that screw (white also) is often run to the back-up solenoid body to give it a good ground…Take an ohmmeter and measure resistance from connector pin with white wire to the frame. Should read 0.00 ohms. Then read resistance from truck-side connector white wire to truck ground (connector should be disconnected for both of these measurements) and again you should see 0.00 ohms. If that is good, truck frame to trailer frame must read 0.00, Once you get those to zero, your problem will be gone.
Big Ed. Same thing happened to my 2006 trailer ground. I ended up adding an additional wire under the screw on the solenoid. Then I connected that wire to the bolt underneath the hitch with a SS clamp. That grounded the solenoid to the trailer and all was ok after that. My solenoid became “loose” for some reason and lost its ground to the trailer frame. Perform the checks that oldtimer57 suggests before and after you run the wire. You should see good readings after adding this wire.
The white wire coming from the harness is attached to the solenoid with a screw. That was the only ground from the harness. I cannot find any other ground wires attached anywhere in the trailer tongue. Each light on the trailer has a white ground attached to the trailer, but nothing else attached through the harness. Have an amazing day 0j3The solenoid does not seem loose anywhere, nor does any connections seem to be broken or loose. Nothing has changed since I used the trailer last fall. The trailer has not moved since my last trip when the lights worked fine.If I attach the ground from the harness to a bare spot on the trailer, the lights work fine. I dont have an ohm meter and dont know a lot about electricity, DC or AC. The lights worked in November when I parked the boat for the winter. I plugged them in to move the boat last week, and 3 of the 4 trailer harness fuses in the truck blew. I replaced the fuses and had no trailer lights. I had ground issues on a prior boat trailer, so I traced the ground wire to where it connected to the trailer to make sure it wasnt broken or the connection rusted. I removed the ground from the solenoid and held it against a bolt on the trailer and the lights worked. Put it back on the solenoid, and they didnt work. So I dont know what could have changed with the solenoid over the winter to lose the ground. Should I have a dealer check the brake solenoid to make sure it is ok, attach the ground from the harness to a bolt on the trailer, or do as mentioned, connect a new ground from a bolt on the trailer to the solenoid where the white harness ground is attached?Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
One thing is for certain. You need the white wire from the harness to go to the trailer frame for absolute certain. To make things work reliably, you also need that white wire running to the body of the solenoid (I am not talking about the blue wire, different animal of course). On mine, I have the harness wire running to the trailer frame, then a jumper white wire running from that same point on the trailer to the solenoid body. Zero light/backup problems since doing that…Since there is already a trailer ground up front (screw welded to frame) I would use that as the junction / ground point. Harness to that stud, stud to ground for solenoid. Done…Now, on to the blown fuses. Obviously that is a short problem, not a ground issue. I would look at the trailer harness from the connector on back. Look for any broken / chafed insulation, particularly where the wire goes into the trailer frame, and at every one of the welded-in washers used to retain the wiring. Something is shorting. I have seen animals do this more than once (not to me, but I have helped diagnose the problems). I have seen people cause this by stepping over the trailer and snagging the wiring harness with their heel. I have seen swing-away trailers that pinched or fatigued the wire until it broke/shorted. Since you blew three fuses (I assume tail, left turn, right turn?) that suggests the problem is at one point in the wiring where all three wires are compromised. Id check the same places I mentioned earlier. From personal experience, look at ANY point in the wire where there is a “lump” of electrical tape where someone did an ugly / improper repair. On a trailer, I avoid butt splices and use heat-shrink and solder, followed by liquid vinyl to seal properly. Wont pull apart when you least expect it…Finally, if you can back up OK, I would not spend money testing the solenoid. A simple check is to take any sort of 12v battery, trailer wiring harness white wire goes to – battery post, blue wire goes to +. If you hear a “click” when you make/break the connection, the solenoid is almost certainly working correctly. Very unlikely it can cause any sort of short…
oldtimer57 wrote:One thing is for certain. You need the white wire from the harness to go to the trailer frame for absolute certain. To make things work reliably, you also need that white wire running to the body of the solenoid (I am not talking about the blue wire, different animal of course). On mine, I have the harness wire running to the trailer frame, then a jumper white wire running from that same point on the trailer to the solenoid body. Zero light/backup problems since doing that…Since there is already a trailer ground up front (screw welded to frame) I would use that as the junction / ground point. Harness to that stud, stud to ground for solenoid. Done…Now, on to the blown fuses. Obviously that is a short problem, not a ground issue. I would look at the trailer harness from the connector on back. Look for any broken / chafed insulation, particularly where the wire goes into the trailer frame, and at every one of the welded-in washers used to retain the wiring. Something is shorting. I have seen animals do this more than once (not to me, but I have helped diagnose the problems). I have seen people cause this by stepping over the trailer and snagging the wiring harness with their heel. I have seen swing-away trailers that pinched or fatigued the wire until it broke/shorted. Since you blew three fuses (I assume tail, left turn, right turn?) that suggests the problem is at one point in the wiring where all three wires are compromised. Id check the same places I mentioned earlier. From personal experience, look at ANY point in the wire where there is a “lump” of electrical tape where someone did an ugly / improper repair. On a trailer, I avoid butt splices and use heat-shrink and solder, followed by liquid vinyl to seal properly. Wont pull apart when you least expect it…Finally, if you can back up OK, I would not spend money testing the solenoid. A simple check is to take any sort of 12v battery, trailer wiring harness white wire goes to – battery post, blue wire goes to +. If you hear a “click” when you make/break the connection, the solenoid is almost certainly working correctly. Very unlikely it can cause any sort of short…Thanks. I dont know where the screw welded to the frame is located. I will look for it and if I cannot find it, Ill drill a new hole and put a small bolt in for just the ground. That way, I will know where the ground is and I wont have to worry about it. Ill run a separate wire from there to the solenoid as you suggest. I noticed when I bought the boat that someone put a new harness on at some point, as there was a bunch of electrical tape connections inside the tongue. I actually bought a new harness and installed it today. I suck at soldering, so I bought the heat shrink crimp connectors. I know it wasnt the best option, but I made sure to give each wire a good medium forced tug to ensure I crimped the wire good. Then, I used a lighter to shrink the stuff around the wire. I will get some of the sealant you mention and put that on all the connectors, not just the harness, as I noticed that every light connector is one of those male/female single pin type plug. They are supposed to have some sort of seal, but I noticed when I switched to led lights, that most of them did not seal at all. I did not see any other areas of electrical tape under the trailer, so I hope that changing the harness and using the heat shrink connectors solves any issue with a short. Ive looked at as much of the wiring as I can see, and it all looks good. So hopefully it was the wad of electrical tape used on the prior harness…lolIll update this after I get the ground connection location figured out. I wonder if the welded screw you mention is located in the same location on every trailer they produce? If so, where is yours located? Have I mentioned that I hate dealing with electrical issues…lol. Now I know why the wire chasers on the Apache would spend all day cussing. I did fiberglass and sheet metal and I would tease them often about it taking so long to track down a short or lose connection…lol. karma seems to be coming back around at times like this….lolThanks again. Oh, Ummm…do you happen to know the size of the stainless screw that goes into the solenoid? It seems my TBI struck again and I cannot find where I put it so I need to buy another one…ha..ha…ha..Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
It will be a few days. Supposed to rain to.orrow and snow Wednesday…ugh….Spring, hurry up already…Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
mine is on the front part of the trailer, maybe 12-24″ down the port side of the trailer inside the c-channel…
oldtimer57 wrote:mine is on the front part of the trailer, maybe 12-24″ down the port side of the trailer inside the c-channel…I found the screw. It was where you said yours was. Once all this snow and rain gets the heck out of here, Ill finish the wiring. What size screw goes into the solenoid? Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I am not sure, having never bought one. Id suspect either something in a size 6-8 or else something in that size but metric.I have fixed at least one where I had to tap the hole…
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