roberts11260

2001 dodge CTD.

I have just installed complete new electric drums and wired them in. but they do not work.

the actuator in my truck has a little green light that will come on when the trailer is plugged in.

If I manually move the actuator switch I can hear a buzzing sound coming from the master cyl area also the sound can be heard underneath the trailer.

Any ideas would really be appreciated.

I pull this the trailer for a living and cannot afford to take it somewhere an pay someone to repair it

Its a 18ft trailer with 10 inch drum brakes.

HAY BURNER

adjusted them up ? takes a few miles to get them to seat somtimes
drive it a few miles then adjust them back up see where you are at

bulabula

I would check the wiring again and ensure you've got a good ground and that the connector is clean.

It wasn't clear to me if the "little green light" comes on now when the trailer is plugged in.

What kind of electric brake controller is it? And why would there be something buzzing coming from the Master Cylinder area? Did you do some work there? I'll hazard a WAG that it didn't buzz before you re-wired.

How many axles have brakes?

Again, I'd re-check the wiring to ensure you didn't get something wrong. Do you have a multi-meter to check how many amps you're pulling when applying the brakes?

hth

Jeff in TD

If you haven't adjusted trailer brakes before, tighten the adjuster until the tire and wheel becomes tight and difficult to turn and then back the adjustment off 4 bites or so (3/4 to 1 full turn of the wheel). You will still hear drag, as the magnet skims along the armature.

The other possiblity could be a short. Current draw should be around 2.8 amps per magnet at 12 volts.

Al-Ko and Dexter both have great downloadable manuals for their brakes.

http://www.al-kousa.com/

http://www.dexteraxle.com/products___literature

torquefan

Do the brakes work on the road when you apply the controller manually? I'm curious as to what the original problem was before you installed the new brakes.

Another thing you can try is to disconnect the trailer from the truck, jack it up, and deploy the breakaway switch (if equipped). This will rule out the truck from being a problem. You could also power the brake circuit up manually at the trailer connector to check for operation.

roberts11260

The brakes have never worked on this trailer, since I have had it.

The wiring maybe messed up.

My truck has the big RV connector and the trailer has the other type looks like a T with a round male insert.

The green light on the actuator stays green no matter what when plugged into the trailer. but when I manually move the actuator the light gets a slight red color to it.
Anyone know or have a diagram of a male connector?

I believe the connector is wired wrong, when I got the trailer I had to rewire the entire connector just guessing which color goes where.

Actuator brand reads Tekonsha


Im very Thankful to you all for trying to help me out.
Im still trying to figure this out

roberts11260

Thanx
Still reading up, and learning

BearKiller

It sounds like your actuator is working as it should.

I have no idea what the buzzing is.

Electric brakes cannot be diagnosed going down the road.

Jack up all the wheels and disconnect each single wheel from the hot side of the brake wiring.

Take a 12-volt battery, a hot lawn-mower battery will work, and individually check each brake by applying the battery directly to that brakes wires.

One bad magnet will kill the whole system.

Once you get the brakes working such that you can spin each wheel and lock it up with the battery, then hook them all back together and see if you can still spin each wheel and lock it up.

All of this is done with the trailer NOT plugged to the truck.

Once you can get the brakes working independent of the truck, then plug to the truck and spin the wheels, seeing if the controller will lock them up.

Electric brakes are a joke, at best, but they can be made to at least try to work by process of elimination.

Jeff in TD

I was going to mention that the wiring that comes under trailers has 2 layers of plastic insulation, and the inner layer is translucent and if you didn't know it was there it would be easy to not strip it.

The buzzing sound you describe, though, makes me suspect a short. While you have the magnets disconnected, I’d take an ohm meter to the trailer plug… My guess is that you will find the trailer brake pin has continuity to ground even when the magnets are unhooked. Wiring can get pinched, or if someone has welded on the axle, maybe the insulation burned off the wire that runs through.

Electric brakes are definitely a compromise, but they are a cost effective way for a vehicle with hydraulic brake system to be coupled and uncoupled to a trailer’s brake system. Once I got my Brakesmart, I found out that electric trailer brakes can perform better than I ever thought possible- as long as you keep them clean and adjusted and have a good controller.


***** EDIT *****

I got to thinking about the part of your post where you say the trailer uses one of those round pin utility type trailer plugs, and you have an adapter for the rectangular pin plug... Some trailers with the round pin type plug have been known to be wired differently than most. There was a thread earlier about a guy who's brakes locked because the setup of the adapter and trailer was feeding the truck's +12v pin directly to the trailer brakes...

Might be worth checking out.

torquefan

Good post. I would definitely pick up a new trailer connector to match the truck one. Then remove the trailer's connector, and use that spare battery to determine what each wire does. Just make sure you have first determined which one is the ground wire- Then you can apply power to each other wire to see what turns on.

roberts11260

the brakes are jumping when I connect the red wire where the blue wire is supposed to go.

I have tried switching the black an blue the black an red nothing. just a bunch of sparks.

BearKiller

There is no across-the-board color coding of wires in trailers, not even in trailers of the same brand.

I have wired many trailers where every wire on the trailer was the same color.

With the trailer un-plugged, take a test light and ascertain that the truck plug is working properly: i.e. lights are lights, right turn is right turn, brakes are brakes, etc.

Then do the same process of elimination with the trailer plug and a loose battery that is grounded to the trailer frame.

Until you get the wiring right, the brakes can't work.

Once you get the wiring right, then follow the previous instructions to trouble-shoot the trailer brakes.

bulabula

This doesn't balance. Can you afford to drive it like it is - with the trailer brakes being screwed up?

Since you bought new brakes for it, maybe its time to let someone who knows what they're doing, do it right the first time. There's nothing wrong with that - and certainly better than sparks flying for unknown reasons. Don't think of it as a cost, think of it as an investment.

JimmieD

Trailers cannot be grounded through the hitch ball, but require a separate wire grounded to truck frame, through wiring connector and on to trailer ground.

With that spare battery you can test each wire in the connector on trailer to see what's what. Then find trailer brake pin on connector, through process of elimination or whatever, and see if the truck's pin is putting out steady 12volt with brakes actuated.

The instructions on jacking up and testing each brake and adjusting them properly cannot be improved on. Once you determine you have 12V at truck connector, and 12V at trailer connector when hooked up it's time to check wires and brakes themselves. No other shortcuts will reveal the true problem. Beats killing yourself or somebody else for not repairing them.

coleo

this might be silly
my 40 ft has electric over hydraulic brakes
if the fliud is to low its makes a low humming noise
if there is air in the lines there is a low humming noise
way better than straight electric brakes IMO
just a thought