Removing the Class III trailer light plug?

[Boomyal]

Has anyone done it? Something hit the bracket on my setup and bent it. I removed the 4 torx screws that hold the door flap onto the bracket, then removed the single bolt that holds the bracket onto the hitch bar. The problem is that you cannot pull the bracket out past the receptacle.

There must be a connecter at the rear of the receptacle but the connection is recessed inside the hitch bar. Also there is not enough slack on the wires to pull the receptacle far enough out of its hole in the bar to see how the harness attaches to it.

If I knew how it is anchored there would probably be enough room to do it.

 

[thebrakeman]

I had to remove that bracket a couple of years ago. The plating was poor, so it was rusty and nasty looking. I removed, sand-blasted, repainted, and reinistalled.

IIRC, there is something else you need to remove/disconnect that will allow you to push that connector thru the bracket (aka, pull the bracket off of the connector). I think you need to get as much slack from behind as possible, pulling the connector as far out of the bracket as possible. This will expose some screws (?) that will let you disconnect the actual 7-pin connector from that flapper/cover.

Once released, if you're is as rusty as mine was, take care of it, too.

 

[Boomyal]

Well Brakeman, I'm thinking that the 4 screws you may be talking about are the Torx screws the face rearward and hold the flap cover to the bracket. The flap cover is firmly affixed to the body of the connector and once those screws are removed you can actually pull the whole shebang out, rearward from the bracket.

That is where the problem lies, there is simply not enough slack in the harness to allow the back (actually front) of the connector to clear the bracket. As such you cannot get a clear picture of how the harness plugs into the connector body.

The bracket itself is only held on by one 12 mm bolt and a locating tang. Once you remove that bolt the bracket is free to spin around on the connector body but you cannot pull it back off past the connector door flange.

Actually my flange and flap door are a bit busted up too. Whatever ran into the bracket and bent it, broke up the flange and cracked the flap door. If I could find any Gen 4's in the junk yard it would be easy enough to remove the torx screws, pull a replacement connector rearward and reach up behind to snip the wires. With a connector in hand, that would allow me to see how the harness attaches to it.

 

[Trac Marks]

My Sport Trac harness disconnected from behind as it had no slack either. Plastic push lock thingie. I first had to work the down-facing flat-4 wiring harness lose from its C-shaped clip, then I could push a regular screw driver into the round 7 plugs harness and pull the wiring forward. Thought for sure I'd have to drop the spare tire but wasn't necessary. Hope that moving the flat 4 plug outta the way helps. Prepare for sand in the eyes.

 

[Boomyal]

My Sport Trac harness disconnected from behind as it had no slack either. Plastic push lock thingie. I first had to work the down-facing flat-4 wiring harness lose from its C-shaped clip, then I could push a regular screw driver into the round 7 plugs harness and pull the wiring forward. Thought for sure I'd have to drop the spare tire but wasn't necessary. Hope that moving the flat 4 plug outta the way helps. Prepare for sand in the eyes.

I do know about the down facing 4 connector flat plug and did have that removed from the tail of the bracket. But I could not pull the main plug (4 torx screws removed) far enough forward to see how to separate it from the harness.

 

[Scorpion8]

Boomyal, do you have a Class III hitch? I just examined mine more closely and it's an 1-1/4" receiver, not a 2" receiver. Thought they came stock with 2" Class III hitches or was that a "tow package"?

 

[thebrakeman]

No it wasn't those 4 torx bolts, although you do need to remove those, too.
I just went out and looked (drove the Mounty in yet ANOTHER snow storm today in Michigan!).
I obviously can't see everything, but I know that I was able to gather as much slack as possible by hand from behind the bumper, and expose some other fastener that released the round socket (that has the actual terminals) from the outer plastic door-flap.
Now that I think about it, it may have been 2 or 3 small set screws that would be perpendicular to those torx screws. It may have even been all the way back where the wires enter the socket.

All I know is that I did not have to clip any wires, and I did not have to find a connector further upstream to remove. But then, perhaps I had more slack than you do, and I was just fortunate.

I would definitely look much closer at every bit of that connector for the fasteners I'm talking about, before you go clipping wires. Once you do that, you have more potential for problems down the road. If you find what I'm talking about, maybe you can get a pic for others.

Let us know.

 

[Boomyal]

Boomyal, do you have a Class III hitch? I just examined mine more closely and it's an 1-1/4" receiver, not a 2" receiver. Thought they came stock with 2" Class III hitches or was that a "tow package"?

Yeah, I have the 2" receiver. I think there were two levels of tow packages.

 

[thebrakeman]

Standard equipment for 3rd and 4th gen was the Class II, 1¼" receiver, limited to 3500 lbs.
Optional HD Tow Package replaced that with the Class III/IV, 2" receiver.