HELP! Electric Trailer Brake Issue

[mhazelton]

I just purchased a 1993 Featherlite 30' Car Trailer with two 7k axles and I have no brakes and my Prodigy Controller shows no connection (n.c.). So far, I have used a test light and found power when manually engaging the controller at the tongue and at each axle of the trailer. I even went a little bit further and hooked up a marine battery directly to the trailer brake wire and ground at the tongue, checked for power at axles, and no stopping power at all. Is it possible that all (4) brakes are fried at the same time or is there a common thing I am missing?

Of course the previous owner claims the brakes worked fine.

[choupique108]

if you use the battery and make them lock up you should be able to go to the tires and hear the magnets on the brakes humming

[2000 7.3 6speed]

I would just pull the hub off and check every thing out.

[mhazelton]

Battery hooked up, but did not hear any humming.

Looks like I am pulling all the hubs, I will post with findings.

Anyone else experience this problem... I have with one or two hubs at a time, but never with all four and never with n.c. on my controller display.

[Ryan Rønning]

Wow, I figured it would be a truck problem. At least look for a messed up wire before pulling hubs. It extreamly unlikly that all four brakes went out!

[mhazelton]

I am not sure if it is as simple as a messed up wire, I really, really wish it could be. What makes me think it is in the hubs is that there is power to each hub with a direct battery hook up and the tester connected directly to hot and ground each time.

The only thing I think I can do short of pulling hubs is to check for resistance at each brake wire.

I am just flat out of ideas on this one, reason why I came here for help. I really appreciate the responses. Hopefully some one out there has gone through what I am now.

[97 golden stroker]

I dont think that you have a problem behind the hub do to the fact that the brake controler dont pick it up. if it were me i would follow the brake wire you plug into the truck and find the box then look for problems. if nothing wrong then i would pull the plug apart the make sure the wire did not get cut.

[Ryan Rønning]

Originally Posted by mhazelton

I am not sure if it is as simple as a messed up wire, I really, really wish it could be. What makes me think it is in the hubs is that there is power to each hub with a direct battery hook up and the tester connected directly to hot and ground each time.

The only thing I think I can do short of pulling hubs is to check for resistance at each brake wire.

I am just flat out of ideas on this one, reason why I came here for help. I really appreciate the responses. Hopefully some one out there has gone through what I am now.

Wish I could help better but I have experienced nothing like this!

[2000 7.3 6speed]

On my trailer 6 of my 8 breaks stopped working and i pulled the hubs and there was a plastic connector that the wires pass through to get to the magnet and some how the wires just broke off

[mhazelton]

Originally Posted by 97 golden stroker

I dont think that you have a problem behind the hub do to the fact that the brake controler dont pick it up. if it were me i would follow the brake wire you plug into the truck and find the box then look for problems. if nothing wrong then i would pull the plug apart the make sure the wire did not get cut.

The controller adn truck wiring are fine. I hooked up to a different trailer I have and it works fine. I did take apart the connector on the 93 trailer i just purchased and rewired/clean connections to rule out connector issues.