Today we will show you part number ETBC7 brake controller installation kit. What this kit does is it fills in the blanks between your 4 pole connector and the brake controller. Basically on the instructions of your brake controller, it will show you a link between the foot brake and stop light switch, a battery, and then a line going out to the connector out back. This kit here fills in those missing pieces. We will cover each individual part. First we will start from the rear of the vehicle and work our way forward. This part here is 7 and 4 pole to 4 pole adapter. This will plug into your existing 4 pole that you have on your vehicle. It just plugs in like normal while this white wire gets grounded to the body of the vehicle. You will have a couple extra wires. The black wire will be ran to the battery. This blue wire here gets run to the blue wire on the brake controller.
Finally, we have this purple wire which gets run to the reverse lights. If you do not need this wire or the black wire you still have to connect the blue wire for brakes. On the 7 and 4 pole adapter it comes with this bracket right here that mounts to the bottom of your bumper or wherever you are going to mount it underneath your vehicle. It comes with 2 sets of screws. These small screws will attach it to the bumper or support bracket, whatever you use. Then these screws here will hold the connector in place to the bracket. This gray cable here has 2 conductors in it, one is going to be white and one is going to be black. What happens is, this wire is going to get split back and gets connected to the 2 wires on the 4 pole to 7 and 4 pole adapter. What happens basically is you are going to take your blue and black wire and run the black wire to the other black wire. However, you will take the white wire and run it to the blue wire.
This loom will cover up the wiring from the back end to the beginning of the wire up front. Next step is to run this cable back up to your battery. This will provide power for the black wire for a 12 volt power supply going out back. The reason you want to go to the battery first is because you are always going to have some left over. Approximately 5 to 6 foot and you would have excess wire that you will cut off and run it between your brake controller and battery. So you will have 1 black wire running to your battery and the other black wire will be ran to the brake controller. So you will have 2 connections coming off of your battery. After you have already ran to the battery for your hot lead you are coming back. The wire running to the battery and brake controller will need a circuit breaker. Depending on your brake controller it is going to be a 20 amp or 30 amp. Thats why supply 3 because different brake controllers use different amps. This 40 amp you will also want to install between the battery and 12 volt power supply going out back. So it is a pretty good idea to install these side by side. There will always be one left over. To make all these connections to the circuit breaker and wiring to the battery. The kit comes with all the ring terminals to make the connections. These 2 biggest ones will be going towards your battery. The 4 smaller ones will be making the connections to your circuit breakers. We also have butt connectors to make the connections between 2 wires from the brake controller and harness. Finally it comes with 10 zip ties to help secure any excess wires to the frame components and any other stationary objects.
Diagnosing a Brake Controller Problem
Alright, today on this 2009 Ford F-150 we are going to diagnose a brake controller problem. Now we can use these steps on any brake controller that is on the market to verify if it is working or not. Now our brake controller is already telling us that it has an error message. It is flashing an Er on top. Usually it means an internal problem. We tested our trailer so we know it is good. So, it is not that. So first off we will make sure we have a constant 12 volt power supply. We will check the black wire first. OK, we are good there. Now we will try our red wire for our brake signal. OK, that is good there. Now we will try our blue wire and that will be our output. So we should have output on this wire whenever we hit the foot brake or the manual override. OK, we get nothing on the foot brake and nothing on the manual override. So definitely the error is internal and this brake controller does have to be replaced.
Trailer Brake Controller Reverse Light Lead Installation
All right what we are going to do on this install is the reverse light lead to our electrical connector. For instance on a 5-pole you can use this on a boat trailer that has a reverse lock out for hydraulic brakes on it. Also you can use on a 7-pole application the trailer may have reverse lights on the back of it. Some RVs have a reverse light hook up on the back of it. I will show you the basic generic steps of how it is installed. 00:22
Trailer Brake Controller Comparison Review
Today we are going to talk about the two main kinds of brake controllers, the proportional and the time delay. The two we have here are the Journey HD and the Draw-Tite Activator II. These are what you call the time delay brake controllers. Basically what happens is that when you hit the brakes, they come on at a certain speed that you set on the brake controller. Like on this one here, we have a sync switch here that controls how fast it comes on and then this knob here controls how much power it takes to stop the trailer. Basically you hit your foot brake and it comes on at the rate you determine and at how much power you have set aside for it, and then it stays there until you completely let off the brake.
Trailer Brake Controller Wiring Colors
Today we are going to cover a frequently asked question. It really turns up a lot. And actually it is easier than you think. Basically, if you have a pickup and you got a tow package with it and you got one of these wire harnesses that plug underneath the dash and plugs into your brake controller, you might have five or sometimes even more wires coming off of it. And you notice that your brake controller only uses four. We have got one over here, we will show you, that has just the four wires and what do you do with the extra wires? The short answer is do not worry about it, because the brake controller has all that it needs from these four wires.
Trailer Brake Controller Wire Testing
Today we are going to cover a few notes on testing an electronic brake controller. What we are going to cover here is going to apply to virtually all brake controllers. Basically, if you run into a problem where you think your brake controller is not working, well, it could be a the brake controller or it could be something in the truck itself, in the connector or c it actually could be problems in the trailer. What we are going to show you today is how to look for problems that will either rule out the brake controller or make sure that it is the brake controllers fault. Just like any electronic devices, they seem to have a limited lifespan some will work for years and some will not. But this way you can also verify that it is working good.
Removing and Replacing Trailer Brake Shoes Review
Today we are going to show how to remove the break shoes on a typical electric break axle, this one in particular is a twelve inch drum. We are using that one because it is large and easy to see. This applies to virtually all electric brakes from this size on up and down to the smaller sizes. We will go over how it comes apart and the tools you will need to do it with.
