2001 Heritgae 4 pin flat connector running lights

[vipertblck]

Trailer holds an 18' boat, no trailer brakes, and has the flat style connector with 4 pins. First got it and nothing worked, fixed the broken white ground wire right at the ball area on trailer and now I have brake lights and turn signals; only things missing is the running lights. The rear running lights in the middle of the trailer(by the boats drain plug) are ripped off; only 1 light is still in tact and the other ripped off light has the wires just wrapped around the frame with the connector still in tact, I shouldn't need a light in here to make my running lights work should I? where do I start with no running lights?

 

[kjsAZ]

Most likely a "rotten" junction somewhere in the harness. When I got my last (used) boat & trailer I had some light issues too. Didn't bother to search further when I saw that they had used regular butt joints and even worse butt splices to wire the trailer. Bought a new set of LED tail lights which came with a harness and pulled it through with the existing one. Only used joints with heat shrink over them and some dielectric grease over all "bolted" connections. No more problems and much brighter tail light which you can dunk immediately as they don't get hot. A harness alone is less than $10. LED tail lights with harness were $40.

Searching for a problem takes more time but you can take a voltmeter and measure along the wires. I wouldn't waste my time for it and just go new.

Edit, first check whether there's power on the vehicle side of the trailer plug. The defective junk could have made a short and blown the fuse in your vehicle too.

 

[vipertblck]

Most likely a "rotten" junction somewhere in the harness. When I got my last (used) boat & trailer I had some light issues too. Didn't bother to search further when I saw that they had used regular butt joints and even worse butt splices to wire the trailer. Bought a new set of LED tail lights which came with a harness and pulled it through with the existing one. Only used joints with heat shrink over them and some dielectric grease over all "bolted" connections. No more problems and much brighter tail light which you can dunk immediately as they don't get hot. A harness alone is less than $10. LED tail lights with harness were $40.

Searching for a problem takes more time but you can take a voltmeter and measure along the wires. I wouldn't waste my time for it and just go new.

Edit, first check whether there's power on the vehicle side of the trailer plug. The defective junk could have made a short and blown the fuse in your vehicle too.

which wire/prong is it on the vehicle? From what I've read it's the brown wire that's the running lights....?

 

[kjsAZ]

http://www.hitchanything.com/images/...ng-diagram.jpg

Shows it all..... Brown is correct