Connecting brake controller to Ford supplied wiring harness | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Connecting brake controller to Ford supplied wiring harness

I have an '06 Ford Explorer (V8 2WD Limited :) ) with the bigger (class III?) towing hitch. Vehicle came with that little wiring connector/pigtail harness and I now want to connect that to a Reese POD trailer brake controller. The controller has 4 wires coming out of it and I'm pretty sure I've matched up the wires correctly (as follows):

Code:
Ford harness wires:

blue		from trailer brake controller
violet/white	stop light to brake controller
red		fused brake controller battery feed (+12)
black/white	ground
brown		head lamp switch for running lights


Reese POD controller wires:

blue		trailer brakes
red		stop light
black		+12
white		ground


Connections:

harness		controller
blue		blue	controller output
violet/white	red	stop light
red		black	+12v
black/white	white	ground
brown		n/a	head lamp switch


But my actual question is about connecting the wires from the controller (just regular copper wires thick and thin) to the Ford harness which has wires that end in what I think are heat shrink wrappers covering crimp connectors. I believe the heat shrink tubes have adhesive in them that I assume seals the connection when heated after the the wires are crimped in.

How the heck do you get the wires through the heat shrink tubes and into the crimp connector?? They're too small an opening! I must be missing something really obvious to others!!! Help!
 






I cut the shrink wrap off and shortened the leads to match up with where I was putting the controller.
 






Found this web page - looks like my best option is lopping off those dumb heat wrappers and crimp connectors. :D

http://www.mmxpress.com/technical/connections.htm

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