Trailer Brake Controller Installation - 2004 Ford Explorer

Installation of a Trailer Brake Controller on a 2004 Ford Explorer

Today on this 2004 Ford Explorer we're going to install part number ETBCZ. We're going to use this to install Brake Controller part number 90885 from Tekonsha, the Prodigy P2 Brake Control. So we'll start inaudible by installing a mounting bracket onto the hitch. Now this bracket does not come with the kit and we'll be using part number 18140. Now the bracket is a little on the short side, so we have to make it a little bit longer. What we're going to do is just add a couple more holes to the end of the bracket.

We use a 7 pole bracket to locate our holes. Then we'll go ahead and drill it out and then attach it to our 7-pole bracket. Then we'll attach it to our hitch. Before we install our 7-pole connector we'll go ahead and take a few moments to connect our gray wire that comes with the kit up to our 7 pole connector. What we'll do is wind these wires up in electric tape and leave out the leads that we'll need later, such as the 4-pole, the brake wire, which is blue and our black wire which is for our 12 volt power supply.

Then we'll wrap up our purple and white wire. The white wire will be attached to the frame for ground while the purple wire is for reverse lights if it is ever needed. Onto our black and blue wires. We'll install the gray duplex cable, which has a black and white wire. We'll peel away the gray sheet to reveal the wires and strip them back to make our connections.

We'll go black to black and then white to blue. We'll put some tape around those connectors, as well. Next we'll install the loom around the wires like this and then tape it up. With our 7-pole connector installed onto the bracket we'll turn attention to the 4-pole. Now we'll have to remove the original 4-pole from its original bracket right behind the hitch and we'll go ahead and make our connection.

To make the 4-poles go together we're going to cut the sheath off the adapter side and then we can plug into the factory 4-pole harness. Apply a little bit of electric grease on the inside to protect the connections and make it a permanent connection after that. With our 4-pole connected up we'll go ahead and run our white wire with a ring terminal tot he body for ground. We'll be using a number 14 self-tapping screw to accomplish this. Then we'll go ahead and take our gray cable and run it up to the front of the vehicle. We'll make sure we'll stay away from anything that's moving, like the suspension, or anything hot, like the exhaust. We'll go ahead and route this cable up through the engine compartment up to the battery. At this point we'll go ahead and install the circuit breaker. With the cable ran up to the battery we'll go ahead and run it past a little bit, maybe about 3 to 4 foot and then cut off the excess. Our black wire in its sheath is going to be connected to the circuit breaker and then ran to the positive post of the battery. When we run our black wire through the circuit breaker we'll run it from the end going out from the 7-pole, we'll run it up to the silver post. Then the copper post will go to our positive power supply. In this case we're going to actually tap off the power supply going into the power junction box. And the white wire's going to be, actually, ran back underneath the vehicle and up through a grommet to get to the inside. We'll cut the grommet from the inside underneath the dashboard and then use a piece of air tube to stick through it to the outside towards the engine compartment. We'll go back outside and pull the air tube up and connect it through our white wire with some electric tape, then pull it back into the vehicle from the inside. Next we'll route a piece of air tube over to the passenger side glove compartment, which we've lowered out of the way to get to our tow package. We'll go ahead and plug in our wiring harness to the port, which is part number 3035-P. Then we'll attach the other end to our air tube and pull it back over to the driver's side. When we have the cable ran to the driver's side we go ahead and start mounting the brake controller. When we install a bracket we'll make sure that it makes the brake controller sit in a straight line with the vehicle. We use two screws attached to the dash and then we'll go ahead and plug into the back of the brake control. Now since the tow package isn't complete, which means that the blue wire on the port isn't ran all the way out back and that's ran I ran a white wire to the inside, we'll cut the blue wire--that will be the output from the brake controller--and we'll splice that into our white wire right behind the brake controller. Then we'll go ahead and run two other screws into the side of the brake controller to hold it in place. And after a quick check with our trailer to verify the connectivity, now finish it before I install ETBC7 on our 2004 Ford Explorer.