Trailer Light Problems.

[mikeh]

Last night I tried to solve why my Left blinker and brake light on my trailer was not working. It took a while to find the problem (It's never the bulb). The connection between the Explorer and the trailer was the problem. I tried putting some dielectric grease in the connection but still nothing. The trailer prog looks fine. I think the hole on the Explorer side is just a little bigger than it should be. I really don't want to buy a new connector from Ford for 40 bucks.

Any suggestions for how to make this work better. I thought maybe I could throw a little silver soder on the connector that is not working.

I'm sure I could cut off the X's side and rewire but I hate to try this as there isn't much wire to work with.

I hate trailer lights.

 

[mikeh]

No ideas on this one? I guess I'll play with it again tonight. Maybe if I take a pliers to the Ford end I can bend it up enough to make a connection. Any other ideas??

Mike H

 

[JDraper]

Sorry, didn't catch this one the first time around. You're right about trying to bend the contacts. That works on occasion. I take it from what you said you can make it work intermittently?? You can get a replacement for the Ford harness from Pep Boys for about $15 that will plug into the factory harness up by the lights.

BTW, I had a similar problem w/my trailer lights. Turns out that my X has a separate set of fuses in the fuse box just for trailer lighting, and one of them was missing.

 

[mikeh]

Well I found the problem last night. I played with it some more and thought the problem might be in the connector from the trailer. Well I changed out the connector and still had the same problem.

So then I started messing with the Ford side and after some wiggling the yellow wire just fell out of the plug. So I did all the work on the trailer for nothing. Oh well that side shouldn't have any more problems. The problem was that everytime I shoved my tester up in the Ford side I would get good readings. I guess I'll stop by AutoZone on the way home and see if they sell the whole wire harness. I taped it in and it works right now but don't want to have the problem again. What a complete pain in the arse. I've probably spent 4 hours playing with this dumb problem and my tester.

Thanks to JDraper for the suggestion of Pep Boys. Wish I had a local Pep Boys in this town. I'm sure Autozone will carry the same thing I hope. Time to spend 15 bucks.

Mike H