I received a Tekonsha Voyager brake controller from a friend for free and hooked it up last night. (I know it works, because it worked last week in his rig, but he took it out before he traded the truck.) When I tried to adjust the gain by lightly pressing the brakes and turning the dial until the light turns yellow, the green light would go off. The gain adjustment would not make the green light come back on.

I checked the Tekonsha website, and in their FAQ they say that if the light goes out when you touch the brakes that there is a power back-feed into the controller from the brake line (blue wire).

Since some of the wires on the trailer were chewed apart by mice, I'm thinking that I may have reversed the polarity on the brakes when I repaired them. The passenger side was disconnected, and both wires are the same color coming out the back of the drum. So maybe I reversed them? It was late last night when I discovered this, so I just went to bed instead of staying up all night cussing and growling.

Does this sound like the source of my problem?

 

The wires going into the drum go to the magnets...an electro magnet.

These cannot be wired wrong. One end is hot from the brake controller, usually the blue wire from the truck and the other end is the ground. They can be reversed, doesn't make and difference. With the drum off and all electrical connections look good, place a metal object against the drum while the brakes are engaged. It should act like a magnet and hold the metal object. The magnets go bad too. It will appear like an overload in the controller.

A hot short in the trailer will do as described, but I would check just the brake wires from the magnets themselves all the way up to the connector at the truck. I have seen the magnet wire in the drum actually rubbed through that will cause a direct short causing brake failure too. Check too for loose connections or shorts as a lot of trailers do not use protection shielding like loom for the wires.

I hope this helps......good luck.

 

Thanks for the tip Osprey.

I looked at the passenger side drum, and one of the wires was broken, so I replaced that magnet. It still won't work. The controller still does the lights-out thing.

I also figured out, that if the trailer is connected to the truck, and the truck keys are in the run position, the passenger side trailer brake is locked. Can't figure out why, the wheel is just locked. With the keys off, the wheel spins fine.

The driver side is just the opposite. I get nothing, ever. I haven't taken it apart yet, because I just gave up for a few days.

I noticed something else. I have a 7-pin to 6-pin adapter that has lights to tell you each circuit is working. For some reason the brake light is ALWAYS on. So I think it's something inside the truck that is causing the problem. I'm wondering if the wires in either the adapter or the 7-pin harness are switched. Maybe the aux power wire is connected in the wrong location?

Thanks for the tips, and keep them coming!

Tommy

 

it sounds like you have the black and red wire hooked up backwards
the red wire on the brake control hooks to the brake light switch and
the black wire on the brake control is hookes top 12 volts

 

If you have a bad ground on the trailer it will cause these problems. the lights may ground through the brakes. i had this problem.