Quote:
Originally Posted by DRanger
I had just found the 30A fuse at the battery this morning. It is intact.
I've checked the voltage at each wire to a bolt on the frame. One reads 1.3v the other 0v....
|
As Bill says, there is probably a short circuit on the path to or from your test points. (Or there is a broken/unconnected wire or wire nut.) I suggest tracing your "12V" voltage from the beginning, to see where things fall apart.
In my older model, behind the refrigerator, there is a wire nut with 3 wires:
- A wire to the 12v "power distribution" load center (NOT the battery);
- the "trailer battery charge" wire from the Bargman Cable (which ends behind the refrigerator); and
- The wire leading INTO the breakaway switch.
If new ones are wired like my 2006 model, there actually IS a fuse on the 12v fuse board (at the end of the wire from this wire nut). If you had a temporary short circuit while moving WDH bars and/or swing hitch with an accident, you could have blown a fuse in the fuse box. So first check for a blown fuse. Then, with no Tow Vehicle connected on the Bargman cable, if you unwrap that wire nut and test for voltage - do you have "+12v" at the wire nut? If so: re-assemble that wire nut and continue.
With "+12v" present at the behind-the-fridge wire nut, move forwards along the 'street side', to find two small wire nuts where breakaway switch "input +12v" and "output to brakes" wires are connected to the breakaway switch leads. Undo one of them. Within one wire nut, ONE wire (which came behind the fridge) should be at "+12v". (If you chose the wrong wire nut, put it back together and try the other one.)
If both wire nuts have zero voltage on all 4 wires, then you have found the problem: The wire from the behind the "behind-the-fridge" wire nut has failed, with either a break or a short circuit. (The breakaway is probably blameless, and the "downstream" wire wire which is split to power the two brakes is also probably blameless.) But if you found "+12v" on one wire, then continue:
- - - -
Put the "+12v input" wire into a new and larger wire nut, along with its partner the "breakaway switch input 12v" wire and with a short testing pigtail. (Be sure that the pigtail end hangs in free air, not touching the TM frame.) With the Breakaway "pull" connector un-pulled, verify that +12v is still present on the pigtail. If +12v was lost in either case, then the breakaway switch contains a short circuit to Frame Ground. (Replace the switch.) If +12v is present in both cases, then continue:
- - - -
Re-assemble the original wire nut for the "+12v input" and one input wire to the breakaway switch, removing the pigtail. Now check the "free" wire from the other side of the breakaway switch: With the breakaway "pull" connector pulled out, it should have "+12v" as output. With the breakaway pull connector shoved back in, it should have zero volts. If either situation is not true, the switch is failed (replace the switch). Else continue:
- - - -
We have now verified EVERTHING to be GOOD, all the way past the breakaway switch and into the output wire for power to the brakes. The problem must consist of a failed connector or short circuit along
that set of wires. From the breakaway "output" wire nut, one wire goes to control the brakes. If it is split to provide power to each wheel (I didn't check), the failure might be:
- along the initial wire (broken or shorted out);
- at a failed wire nut; or
- along one of the "downstream" legs - wires to the individual wheels.
Now inspect and repair those "final" connections, downstream of the breakaway switch which is known to be good, to find the problem.