7-Way Trailer Plug Wiring Issue?

Hey all, I posted this in "Towing" but it might get more traffic here.

So I have a 97 Coleman pop-up camper with a 7 way wiring plug. When I plug it in to my Tacoma, all I get is the running lights and ALL the lights on the camper light up when I turn the trucks lights on. I've got no blinkers, left or right and I also get no brake lights when I apply the brakes in the truck. The electric brakes on the camper also do not seem to work either...

The reason I'm concerned is I was rear ended about 3 months ago (no damage luckily, the reese hitch took the brunt of it!) but did have to replace my 7 way plug as it was snapped off in the hit. When I was replacing it with a new Toyota 7 way plug harness, I found that one of the plugs under the bed was rusted and one of the prongs within the plug was so rusted, it pulled out when I unplugged it. So before I plugged the new one in, I cleaned it and took a staple out of my staple gun and bent it to fit in the plug to replace the rusted out prong and secure a connection to the new 7-way wiring harness. I'm not sure though if its working given the limited lights on the trailer once I plug into it...

Anyone have any ideas as to things I could check to see if its the truck or the camper that has the disconnect? I frigged around with it this afternoon but got no results... Maybe it was that rusty plug I replaced? I have a buddy coming over with his truck with a 7 way to test and help tomorrow but I wanted to throw it out to the community to see what you all think.

Thanks ahead of time!

 

Well I went out this morning and tested the plug on the truck and it all checked out and everything worked correctly. Guess my fixed worked!

Now that leaves me with the camper... I'm not sure how to begin to trace the issue on the trailer side of things. Anyone have any tips or recommendations?

Thanks!

 

Rewireing it is sometimes a lot less of a headache, Compared to chasing down cracked wires and bad grounds..

 

Are all the camper bulbs good? With the camper plugged into the truck use a voltmeter and check for voltage at each bulb when turn signal is on and when brakes are applied.

 

First thing you need to do is get rid of the staple and do the repair correctly. Either hard wire to eliminate that underbody plug or splice in a new plug correctly. If it was that corroded then this is a temp fix and will cause an unwanted problem later on. Once that is correct then you don't have a chance of feedback in the connector itself. Once your 100 percent sure the truck is right then move on. Sometimes a trailer can be wired differently (or truck for that matter) and be a headache.
Lazy legs makes a good point and with a trailer that old I would be thinking of a rewire myself. I've seen so many of the old pop up's my friends have had just frustrate them no end with gremlins.
FWIW....

 

yeah, when my uncle had his shop, he would never do patchwork wiring repairs, period. when we did repair jobs we would gut the old wiring and start over, you can go to a home depot and get, 14 gauge stranded wire, that is what we used, dont know if thats too heavy for a camper. you would be surprised that over the years how a short can develop and that can put a damper on a trip.
one time i was bringing back a sunbelt trailer to overhaul and I was coming up the interstate aty 1am hit a pothole and the short killed truck and trailer! zap pop dark!

 

UPDATE: I finally got it all fixed. Swapped out the staple plug on the truck for a new one (pain in the ass, there was barely enough slack in the harness to get by) On the camper, it turned out to be 2 bad grounds. I also changed out the 7 Way plug on the camper too as it was old and loose. Now everything works great!

Thanks for the help!

 

Good for you. Now enjoy it.....