Trailer brakes or lack of

[dbarr]

Finally home and able to get under the trailer to see what's up with lack of braking power. I found that only the left front was working, first on the circuit, and a broken wire at the left rear. Repaired the wire and now have brakes on left side but still do not on right side. Checked for power at right rear, 3rd on circuit, have 12V. At that point it was getting dark and it's back to work tomorrow so I called it a night.
Since I have power up to the magnet connection would it be safe to assume that the magnets on the right side need replaced or is there something else that I should be checking?

[dalford]

How did you check the 12v? Did you ground the meter to the chassis? I would make sure that the magnet ground wires are connected using an ohm meter? Seems strange both magnets would be bad.

[dbarr]

Checked at the wires since I was cutting the old crimped connections off and redoing them. There is nothing going on inside the drums. I thought 2 on one side was odd, too.

[dalford]

If your sure the 12v is getting to the magnet just check that the other side of the magnet is connected to the chassis. Again, odd both mags failed or both mags ground connection lost. Here is a link from etrailer on brake wiring that might help. You may just need to pull one drum to investigate

http://www.etrailer.com/faq-wiring.aspx

[dbarr]

Thanks. I will pull it apart the first chance I get.

[dbarr]

Looks like a 4 brake brake job is needed. Wiring was broken at the magnet and the drums were gouged severely by the magnets. Amazingly the shoes were still good. 4 new drums, bearings and loaded backing plates and I should be good. This is going to be a nice trailer for somebody to buy next year when I trade. Really a shame I will only get two more good pulls with all new running gear but at least it will be right.

[dalford]

Originally Posted by dbarr

Looks like a 4 brake brake job is needed. Wiring was broken at the magnet and the drums were gouged severely by the magnets. Amazingly the shoes were still good. 4 new drums, bearings and loaded backing plates and I should be good. This is going to be a nice trailer for somebody to buy next year when I trade. Really a shame I will only get two more good pulls with all new running gear but at least it will be right.

Glad to hear you got to the bottom of it even though it was not an inexpensive fix. You might want to check and repack you bearings while you in that deep. Good luck..

[dbarr]

Thanks. New drums include new bearings.