Brake Controller Showing Short in the System
On the way home Sunday from our last outing our brake controller reads a short in the system. We made it home safely, but the brakes were in & out the whole way home. I used my test light to check ...
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So far... no luck.
Our brake wires do pass through the axles to get to the drums on the other side, but there are plastic grommets on the openings. I checked the wires where they pass in/out of the axles and do not see any bare wires. As a matter of fact the wires passing through the axles have two layers of plastic insulation... the wires look like typical lamp cord type wire; however, when I stripped the outer jacket, I found an inner jacket on the wire. I had to strip both to get to bare wire.
Here's what I've done so far...
We hooked up the camper and the brakes seemed to work at first… then stopped working before we got on the road.
I then clipped the positive lead going to the back axle and I drove around the parking lot with only the front axle’s brake’s connected. Still the controller would not activate the brakes… I tried the back axle with the front axle disconnected… no brakes.
I suspect there is an intermittent short on the trailer side, but so far I’ve not been successful at locating it. We have a trip planned for Dec 7… so, I need to get this thing figured out.
Any suggestions?
Happy Camping!
John.
Our brake wires do pass through the axles to get to the drums on the other side, but there are plastic grommets on the openings. I checked the wires where they pass in/out of the axles and do not see any bare wires. As a matter of fact the wires passing through the axles have two layers of plastic insulation... the wires look like typical lamp cord type wire; however, when I stripped the outer jacket, I found an inner jacket on the wire. I had to strip both to get to bare wire.
Here's what I've done so far...
- I disconnected the ground wire for the trailer’s brake system where it's bonded to ground. Using my ohm meter between the positive wire for the system and the trailer’s frame/ground, I did not read a short.
- With the brake controller disconnected inside the truck, I used my ohm meter between the truck's 7-pin connector and ground... I only checked the pin for the brake system. I did not read a short in the truck's wiring.
- I had a spare brake controller for the truck and changed it out. Our primary controller is a Hayes Genesis... the spare is a Draw-Tite, but I don't recall which one.
We hooked up the camper and the brakes seemed to work at first… then stopped working before we got on the road.
I then clipped the positive lead going to the back axle and I drove around the parking lot with only the front axle’s brake’s connected. Still the controller would not activate the brakes… I tried the back axle with the front axle disconnected… no brakes.
I suspect there is an intermittent short on the trailer side, but so far I’ve not been successful at locating it. We have a trip planned for Dec 7… so, I need to get this thing figured out.
Any suggestions?
Happy Camping!
John.
