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ALANSD · 11-04-2002, 01:24 PM

I used a tester to wire the 5 pole round trailer light plug into my motorhome. It works fine. BUT- when I plug in the lead from the toad ( a saturn) I get nada.
Seems the wires were frayed on the end, so I pulled off the female plug, and wired it by testing each wire first to see which light at the rear lit up. Still nothing. Any ideas?
Both plugs use a left and right turn(brake also) wire, a Tail light wire, and a ground only.

74Argosy24MH · 11-04-2002, 08:18 PM

Got a real good ground? Saturns have a lot of plastic.

John

ALANSD · 11-06-2002, 08:07 AM

Right I will check that again. I got another schematic for a Saturn hitch lightplug and tried to rewire to match, still nada. The wire colors seem to match. Would you think if I probe the Saturn end plug with the test light while its turn signals or lights are on, the testlight will light?Seems to me if it does the thing is wired right. I get juice to the cars lights when I run the wires direct to battery and ground. So I know the wires are ok to the car, just something in the plug set up is wrong.

74Argosy24MH · 11-06-2002, 10:13 AM

If you are talking about pushing on the brake pedal and checking the plug, as long as it is wired straight through there should be voltage at the plug. Was this wired by you or a PO? If someone put diodes in it to prevent feedback they could be in backwards.

John

ALANSD · 11-06-2002, 12:04 PM

I replaced the plug last week with the same type as was on there. It had 4 wires on it as does the one on the motorhome end, but also had one wire not connected which seems to be the ground. i thought if I connected that one to the right terminal it would do the trick, but didn't. I will probe it with the foot on the pedal and see if i can get a light on my tester. Does it matter if the key is on for the motorhome switch to activate the toad lights?

canny_banjo_man · 11-06-2002, 01:31 PM

Alansd...
Sorry 2 hear abt Yr problem with Yr wires, I can't help U on that one, as U kn, but I am ( as I usualy are ) a little lost here, we EAT toad-in-the-hole over here, ( SAUSAGE in batter )...so I gather it's not that, WHAT is & why is it named a TOAD ???...

On my garbage trailer we have 7 wires, and I spent ages wiring it up to the male plug, only to find out I somehow turned the plug a little, thus putting the matching colours one wire OUT all the way round the plug, still, I got there in the end, I even managed to teach myself some NEW words...much in disgust to my DOG, who scampered off indoors...lmao....Chris.....

wb13798 · 11-06-2002, 02:15 PM

do you have isolation diodes in the toad wiring.?? if not that could be the problem.. i wired isolation didoed into my toad and the only problem i had was wiring errors ..i was advised to use the diodes to prevent the coach dc from getting into the toads electrical system as bad things could happen..

wb13798 · 11-06-2002, 02:18 PM

use your emergency flashers it will pulse your toads tail lights. and uou can see it with your test light .

74Argosy24MH · 11-06-2002, 04:13 PM

Chris- Toad because it is a towed vehicle.

Brake (& 4 ways) and tail lights will work with the ignition off. For the turn signals it has to be on.

John

ALANSD · 11-06-2002, 04:48 PM

I guess I am having a brain cramp thanks for the idea about the flashers.
I will try that next chance I get. I believe it could be a ground problem, and will run a new ground and see what that does.
I am not towing the car too soon, but want to be ready for the XMAS vacation.

canny_banjo_man · 11-07-2002, 01:27 PM

Thank's Alansd for the translation...thinking abt it...must have misplaced my brain-cell, hope U manage to sort it...
There is nothing WORSE than a wiring fault, guess ALL wires are female...put there to test us...lol
B-good...Chris.....

ALANSD · 11-10-2002, 12:17 PM

well, I ran a new ground and still get nothing when I probe my test light into the holes on the plug. I am going to splice into the wires and see what I get one by one. arghhhh!!!

zamboni · 11-12-2002, 05:34 PM

Where does your ground on the toad side connect?

You say that all the electric comes through the female plug correctly on the MH, right?

And when you touch a known 12vdc + and - source to each respective wire for the toad lights you get each light to light up, right?

The rest should fall into place, with the exception of the possibility of a isolator.

you could check continuity of each wire from the front of the toad to the rear light plug to check actual wiring and which is which with an Ohm meter.

zamboni · 11-12-2002, 05:35 PM

have you traced the "loose" wire to see what it actually is?

11-13-2002, 01:04 AM

TOAD.........ha ha ha!
never herd that one........

ALANSD · 11-13-2002, 01:02 PM

I checked the wires on the car side, to see if the light would light up when I put power to each, they did. The white "extra" wire was looped to itself.
I will continue to trace the wires and see what is up. The MH side is working fine.

74Argosy24MH · 11-13-2002, 03:09 PM

Have you tried jumping from the MH wires to the Saturn wires, no plug in the circuit.

John

ALANSD · 11-14-2002, 06:47 PM

we are thinkin alike on that one, it is my next move as soon as I get the chance, thanks.......I will post results

ALANSD · 12-23-2002, 12:46 PM

stuck a "hot" lead into the saturn end of the barrel plug- lit up the lights as it is supposed to. Stuck my test light (grounded) into the motorhome plug end - it lights as it is supposed to. plug the two together....NOTHING happens. What the heck???

think the ground is the problem? I may run a new ground to the car plug to see.

74Argosy24MH · 12-23-2002, 01:26 PM

Run a ground from the Saturn (something like the engine block that you know is good ground) to a good ground on the mh with the plug in and see what happens.

John