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Thursday, September 22, 2005

Toad Wiring (Continued)

Tonight I got home early enough to get out to the Bounder with the test meter and try to figure out which wires do what with the turn signals and break lights. Doing this by myself takes a little patience, but it can be done.

First, let me say that I DID look in the owners manual for the schematic for the trailer wiring adapter. No luck from the Ford Manual or the Fleetwood Manual.

Next find the ground terminal. Find a clean bolt or something on the chassis for one meter probe, and then touch each of the blades in the trailer connector one by one. BINGO! Make a note of it. and go to the next step.

Start the Bounder and put on the left turn signal. Then back to the trailer connector, touch the negative probe to the ground and touch each of the blades in turn. Find it and note it.

Then go through each of the other turn signals, the break lights, and tail lights in turn. The hard part is doing this by myself. How do I push the break pedal and check the rear of the coach at the same time? Answer: the big Fleetwood satchel that contains all of the documentation and papers for all of the items that are in the coach. It must weigh 5 pounds. So I push the break pedal and put that satchel on top of it. It works! Now run back to the back and see which blade in the connector has the break light connection.

Ok, thats all done. The breaklights are run through the Center connection on the trailer adapter. Now I take the 5 wires from the 5-4 combiner, skin the wires and attach them to the 7 blade adapter.

Then, I take the 4 wire flat adapter and skin the wires back about 1/2 inch and connect them to the appropriate wires comming out of the 5-4 combiner. I used crimp style butt connectors to make the splice nice and neat, then wrapped it with electrical tape.

Plug it all in and IT WORKS! No more magnetic mouse ear lights to deal with.

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