OEM 7 Pin trailer plug disassembly

I ‘ve been watching this site for a couple of years and haven’t seen a "how-to" on disassembling the stock 7 pin plug. I tried searching a few times before I relocated my 7 pin plug. This is my first "how-to" so forgive me if it doesn’t make sense…I’ll try to explain as well as I can.


Photo (1.) The visible electrical contacts portion that you can see when you lift the spring loaded cover is first…it pulls out after you press in on all 4 grey tabs visible on the outside of the 7 pin. The arrows in the photo point to two of these tabs.



Photo (2.) This a better photo of the pieces inside. They come out in the order they are numbered.I used a pick to remove the o-ring and the white spacer. It took a lot of convincing to get the white piece out.


Photo (3.) This shows the contents of the trailer plug after it has been disassembled and the order that it comes apart.



Photo (4.) The wires can be pulled out from the back but only after releasing the tabs that holds each one locked in place inside the plug unit. I had a difficult time figuring out how this came apart…lots of cursing involved, lol. Once it’s apart it’s very easy to re-assemble again, just remember where each wire goes. I wrote down the order on a piece of paper.


I hope that this helps somebody! Thanks for all of the great info that I have received from this site and all of you.

 

Thanks for this write up, I need to replace mine housing cause it broke from getting caught up on some rocks

 

Thank you. It took a while to figure out how to take it apart without breaking it, lol.

 

i recently went off roading and tore mine up, ive looked online to find a replacement along with the mount for it but no luck, think you guys could help?

 

I might have the bracket still. I can check tomorrow. Would that help you at all? Are you really in Germany still?

 

good job OP!

i didn't get into it that deep on mine. as a side note, if you are all ready taking the plug apart, it is the perfect time to solder in some wires to add some aux reverse lights that come on when you put it in reverse. you can see what i did in the link.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/195547-custom-7-pin-relocate.html

 

Great post, Denis! Where are the clips for the wires? How did you reach them?

 

Thanks! They are part of the contact portion of the end of the wires. I reached them from the back side of the plug with the small pick (shown in the 3rd crappy cell phone photo) and running it alongside the wire into the block. I hope this helps.

 

Yeah, it helped, but since the housing was destroyed anyway, I decided to tear into it and expose the clips from the opposite side. lol So let me add another photo into this thread's mix. The green circles and lines are the clips that need to be pushed UP.

Helpful thread, so thanks, again, Denis!

 

Thanks for the added picture. It's much better than my description! I wish that I had taken my good camera with me when I went to my brother's place to do this mod.

 

Any tips for getting that white piece out?

Maybe I just don't have the right curse word yet.

 

Yes, the white piece will come out fairly easily if you use a small pick (with a hook at the end). Likely, you're using all of the same curse words that I did.

 

Let me just say that you can buy this exact same part at NAPA for like 10 bucks... you take apart the old one (just undo one screw and push the wiring out from the housing) and cut the wires off as close to the end as possible, then you re-attach it to the new one (screw type connector) and you have a brand new 7-pin harness. Better than working on the old one IMO....

 

Sure, you could do that. It wasn't very hard to figure out how to disassemble it though. I just took it as a small challenge that only cost me a little time and no money at all.

 

The problem with that is if you actually pull a trailer off road it puts your 7 pin adapter in an even worse position that the plug was originally.

 

Still considering the light hole since the existing plug wont fit well in the curved section next to the license plate, just want to see how one light lights the plate before I do that. Still need to make another attempt at disassembling the stock plug.

 

for an alternative to taking out a light, check out the link in my earlier post, up near the top.

 

Thanks, that would probably work for most people but I have a hitch mount bike rack that I added lights too because the wheels and tires obscure the taillights, because I don't want to give anyone an excuse for not seeing the lights and destroying several thousand dollars in bikes.

 

Excellent write-up. I've been wanting to move the socket, but didn't want to cut/splice the wires. I've been collecting links about it for a long time.

edit: I found a $150 basically new replacement 2nd. gen bumper, so I did that and left the trailer socket in the same place, then added air bags, with the fill valves mounted in the same plate. Perfect.

 

Agreed, thanks for the write up, I hope to remove my factory 7 pin and replace it with the new dual option plug that comes on the 3rd gens since I have both old and new trailers and little interest in rewording the trailers.