Robin and Paul
Trailer Parts, Service, Sales and Rentals
1992 Chevy / GMC 1500 PickupTrailer Brake Controller Install
(Other years may be the same)
"Standard" Wire colors to the controller (Tekonsha and others):
Black, Battery Positive to controller
White, Negative Ground for Controller
Blue, Brake feed from controller to Trailer plug at back of truck
Red, tap into truck Brake light switch signal to tell controller to apply brakes
Remember, the above colors are just a GUIDE. your colors may be different, read the instructions!
Robin and Paul
We found the brake light switch tap on the switch. It was the white wire, second or third from the end (from the back of the truck) The picture shows looking up from the floorboard. Rather than reach all the way up to the switch, we un-wrapped part of the tap on the wire harness where it was easier to reach.
Get a test light and test all the pins on this plug, looking for the one that lights up when you press the brake pedal. The brake light switch is very hard to reach, so poking the wire might be easier, but with a probe tester, look for a wire under the dash that lights with the brake lights. You are probabally looking for a small gauge white wire (seems most GM trucks of this era used white). Tap into the wire for the brake light feed (red wire on Tekonsha brand controllers)
For power, we ran a wire through the firewall, and tapped onto the fuse panel under the hood, through a 20 amp Fuse or Circuit Breaker.
We grounded the controller under the dash to a ground screw. Easy.
The blue (brake wire to plug) was simply passed through a hole in the firewall and ran along the frame to the back plug on the truck. (making sure to use lots of tie wraps to keep the wire away from hot and moving parts)
We used a 20 amp fuse Circuit Breaker to power the brake controller, AND supply power to the 12 Volt power terminal on the trailer plug. This truck did not have wire ran to the back, so we used our 2 conductor brake wire and ran it ourself. Drilled a small 3/8" hole in a rubber plug in the fire wall to run the wire to the brake controller under the dash.
Click on any picture for a larger view
UNDER THE HOOD:
We used one of the main power feed studs on the panel, and with a ring connector, got power to the Circuit breaker, to feed to controller. A 20 amp fuse would also work fine
From here, the blue wire from the brake controller is simply ran through the firewall from under the dash, down under the truck, to the Trailer plug at the back of the Van
Make sure the wire is out of harms way when you run it to the back.
