Troubleshooting Ground Problem in Tow Package Wiring of 2001 Chevy Silverado  

Question:

Expert Reply:

I've learned over the years that anytime something wacky happens with trailer wiring, it's caused by a poor ground connection somewhere. From your description, you've done an outstanding job troubleshooting. Somewhere on your truck in the tow package you have a faulty ground connection. If you can find the point under the rear of the vehicle where the tow package ground to the truck frame, check the connection, making sure it's secure and not corroded. Clean or relocate if necessary.

If that doesn't fix the problem, I'd recommend obtaining the stop,turn and running lamp signals directly from the taillight wiring harness, instead of the tow package harness. I wouldn't suggest doing this on a new vehicle, but on a 20 year old truck like yours, it might not be worth your time to hunt and hunt for the problem. The quick and dirty solution would be to install a powered taillight converter like # C59496 by splicing directly into the taillight wiring harness. The green wire would connect to the right turn circuit, yellow to the left, brown to the running lamp circuit and the red and white wires would ground to the truck. The black wire would attach to the positive battery terminal via the provided fuse holder. The 4 pole connector would be removed and wired into the like colored wires entering the 7-way on the bumper. Basically what you'll be doing is abandoning the lighting portion of the factory tow package and getting your inputs from somewhere else.

You could wire the lighting circuits from the taillight harness directly into the 7-way, but using the powered converter would allow you to pull the power for the trailer lighting directly from the battery rather than through the taillight circuits for a cleaner, more reliable power source. This will also help isolate the truck's wiring system from any short circuits that might occur in the trailer wiring.

expert reply by: Mike L

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