wiring connections for a civilian trailer on a M1009

[mnerrie]

I have a 1984 M1009 that I am trying to wire a civilian trailer to. I am having a hard time getting the connections to work correctly. I spliced into the 12 pin connector wires - green to green , yellow to yellow, brown to brown, and grounded the trailer to the frame. The blinkers both work, the brake lights work with the blinkers, but when I turn on the headlights the break light go off. If i just turn on the headlights without the brakes , the tail lights and blinkers both work. There is still a green/white striped wire, a brown/white striped wire, and a black wire going to the 12 pin connector, all three of which I am not using. I have the wiring diagram and it doesn't help because it doesn't show the green/white or brown/white wires going to the trailer connection. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mistaken1]

Welcome to the site.

Advanced search is good to use as most questions have already been answered.

This is what I did. So much easier and no damage to existing conductors.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/cucv/75403-trailer-lights.html#post941967

Buy a trailer wiring harness for an 83 Chevy truck, plug it in to your truck, go down the road.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/cucv/58663-m1009-trailer-connector-wiring-diagram.html

You should not need the striped wires for your civilian trailer.

Do the running lights stay on with headlights?

How did you make your splice connections? Are they solid, low resistance connections?

I would check your grounds at the tail lights, trailer connection and at the head lights. If you have a corroded ground somewhere electricity seeks the path of least resistance and may be taking an unintended path to ground.

 

[WillWagner]

One of the vendors out there, Saturn, Eastern Surplus...can't remember, has a converter box that is a plug and play thing. I just saw it. Let me see if I can find it again.

 

[mnerrie]

Thanks for the reply. I tested the wires at the trailer connector and, when you depress the brake pedal, the ground wire reads about 9 volts. Time for a continuity tester I guess. The lights, brakes and blinkers all work fine without the trailer hooked up, so I'm guessing it must be in the wires in the rear of the CUCV.
Does the 83 trailer wiring harness you recommend plug into the 12 pin connector plugs? i may decide to switch over to that and delete the splices.

 

[allenhillview]

If you take it apart (the plug on bumper ) you'll find problem mine was that way also I scratched my chin for two days, I've done a lot of farm wagons, etc, so when I took it apart grounds were spliced together right at bottle neck of that pin plug, something to do with black outs. Bought me a livestock 6-pin removed and put right in same place, customized a little for looks so all gaps were full. Now, that happen on 1008 , it may be different. also I had this great idea of using a mv male end off a trailer a guy got me, that didn't work either. Did electric brakes and 12v supply for break away battery box, some states require it on 14' and above, tandem and so on. Also retained the black-outs in truck didn't mess with that, they still work. Yours my different on that 1009

 

[txmytx_catahoula]

The diagram Mistaken1 mentions is the one I use the first time and it worked great. Later, still using this diagram, Worke up an adapter using a spare military trailer connector, again, worked great. If your blinkers are working but alternating from the tow vehicle, that's a grounding prob., especially if the additional load of the lights cuts everything else off. Hope things work out for you.

 

[M1008driver]

I wanted a brake controller knowing some day I would do something over my capability, so I just paid to have it installed. Not the best advice, but worked for me.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/cucv/46121-trailer-wiring-adapter-cucv.html

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/trailers/69398-four-pin-plug-11-pin-plug-pic.html

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/trailers/67526-m101a2-lights-dummies.html

 

[mnerrie]

Thanks for all you replies. The problem turned out to be bad grounds at the tail lights. The connections did not look too corroded, but I used a file to get lots of bare metal at the ground and the problems were solved! Because I already spliced into the 12 pin connector wires, I kept those intact. I wish I had known about the '83 trailer wiring harness. It sure would have been a lot easier.

http://test.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/beerchug.gif http://test.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

 

[mnerrie]