Trailer Brake Controller Installation - 2004 Dodge Sprinter
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How to Install a Trailer Brake Controller on a 2004 Dodge Sprinter
Today on this 2004 Dodge Sprinter van, were going to install part number 39523, the Pod brake controller. Also to install this brake controller were going to use part number ETBC7, the installation kit. Well start off by installing our bracket and our seven pole wiring harness to the bracket. With our bracket installed well go and add the grey cable. Well split the sheath back a little bit and well have a white and black wires inside. Well connect those up to the wires from the seven pole.
Well connect black to black and white to blue. Well go ahead and add the loom covering to the wires. Well make sure we have enough room for our four pole to also plug into the preexisting four pole on the vehicle. Well also take some time out to also take the white wire with the ring terminal and ground that to the frame. Our purple wire is reserved for reverse eye lead.
However in this application that will not be needed. Well also need to hook up our four poles together. Well apply a little bit of dye electric grease to help protect the contacts, and then well go ahead and seal it up. Were basically done with the back. Now well go ahead and run the grey cable up toward the front toward the battery.
When we do that well make sure we stay away from anything thats moving like suspension components or anything hot like the engine exhaust. Okay, with our wire ran up toward the battery, well go ahead and leave it alone for now. Next well go ahead and install our circuit breakers. Well install a 40 amp circuit breaker for our hot lead going out to the seven pole for our 12 volt power supply, and then a 30 amp circuit breaker will be for power supply going toward the brake controller. Now, the white wire from our cable will actually be split back as far as we can, and the white wire will get ran inside the cab through an existing opening in the firewall, and that will eventually be hooked back to the blue wire on the brake controller.
Well trim back the black wire, attaching it with the ring terminal to the 40 amp circuit breaker and then use the excess wire to connect the circuit breaker to the battery terminal. Note, while we have run the wire we will not actually connect to the battery until the end of our install. Well have to get an extra length of wire, probably about four foot should be enough, and that will be part number 10-2-1. On our new wire, the white wire will get a ring terminal and it will be ran to the vehicles ground, while the black wire will get a ring terminal and will be attached to the 30 amp circuit breaker. We will again use the excess black wire to connect our circuit breaker to the battery terminal. We will not actually connect to the battery until the end of our install. The opposite end of our new wire will be run into the cab of the vehicle. Our connection is just about finished underneath the hood. Well go ahead and start hooking up our brake controller harness. This will be a separate part because we need this to plug into the port to wire it into the brake controller. This is part number 7894. At this point we will use the provided butt connector to connect our white wire from the seven pole to the blue wire on our brake controller harness. Our black wire from the 30 amp circuit breaker will go to the black wire on the harness and our white ground wire will go to the white wire on the harness. The red wire from the wiring harness will connect to the brake signal from the vehicle. Weve gone ahead and probed the wire to determine that the black wire with the red stripe is the one we need to connect to. Well use the provided quick connector to make this connection. Well put our wire harness out of the way for now, and well go ahead and install he bracket for the brake controller. Well attach it to the plastic down at the very bottom of the dashboard with the provided screws, and then well go ahead and install the brake controller into the bracket. Now we can go ahead and plug our wire harness to the back of the brake controller. Then well go ahead and secure our wires, making sure they are safe and out of the way. When were done with our connections inside the van, now well go ahead and make our final connections to the battery. Now we have our connection made to the battery. Well go ahead and plug a trailer into the connector. Well go ahead and check our brake controller. It looks like it shows a green light, so that means we have a connection to our trailer. Okay, well hit the manual override and you see how it turns from green to yellow to orange to red. Now well go ahead and check the foot brake. Well hold it down, and you can see how it turns colors again. Okay, so it looks like everythings working. With that that will finish it for our install of part number 39523 from Tekonsha, the Pod brake controller and also ETVC7 on our 2004 Dodge Sprinter van.
Info for these parts were:
Installed by:
Joe V
Installed by:
Jeff D
Video Edited:
Zack K
Video Edited:
Mike H
Video Edited:
Dustin K
Video Edited:
Chris R
Video by:
Alan C
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