2007 Trailer Brake Install - Need Help

Champy · November 16, 2008

I have a 2007 GMC Sierra Crew cab 1500. It has the trailering package and came with a brake controller harness plus the 40a fuse. I am trying to install a Prodigy controller, and after searching all the possible postings cannot find an answer to my problem.....

On the panel under the dash; above the emergency pedal; I'm supposed to connect the factory supplied controller harness. Prior postings all say "top row second from left".....but that spot is already plugged. There are a number of open connector locations on the panel - which one am I supposed to be using? There are five slots up the right hand side which look to be matches / the top 2 are filled; the bottom one has no pins - so it must be one of the middle two openings.

Also - some postings note using bare stubbed wires taped behind the datalink connector.....cannot find those either so since the truck came with the factory connector I'm guessing it should be used.....

Thanks

Here are some pics (hopefully) of the connector and panel.

alaska511 · November 16, 2008

Welcome to the site.

I don't know what that plug you have there is. The factory trailer brake control harness is taped to a bigger harness under the dash (with no connector on the end of it)

There should be dark blue, lighter blue, red, white, and maybe an orang wire in there.

The instructions that came with the Prodigy should tell you how to make the connections to this harness.

There are miles of threads on this subject if you search.

Champy · November 16, 2008

Awww what kind of idiot am I??? I just realized that the harness I been trying to use is from my previous GM truck! What a waste of time thats been. Ok - so I flung myself further into the harness bundles just looking for the right color wires and found them this time. The stub ends were underneath the bundle tape and I couldn't see them before. How stupid to go from a quick connect to loose wires.....thanks GM!

So now I just connect my Prodigy stubs to the underdash ones, and go from there. I can't believe how much time I wasted trying to get that old factory controller harness to work..........anybody want one? PN Z60145418 Z82 Glove Box Jumper.

I am assuming that I still need to install the 40a fuse and the two terminal leads at the fuse box in the engine compartment right?

Outbacker · November 16, 2008

Yes, you are going to still need to connect the wires in front of the fuse box and add a 40 amp fuse.

I was pretty cheesed off when I realized that I had to cut my wiring harness and splice the friggin wires in as opposed to simply plug in the harness. What a dopey way to do it. And I will never understand why I had to cross over the wires in front of the fuse box under the hood to connect them to their corresponding post. And go buy the nuts. Why could they not be on there to begin with. Oh well, all the cost savings steps still are not going to save them.

c4cruiser · November 17, 2008

Yes, you are going to still need to connect the wires in front of the fuse box and add a 40 amp fuse.

I was pretty cheesed off when I realized that I had to cut my wiring harness and splice the friggin wires in as opposed to simply plug in the harness. What a dopey way to do it. And I will never understand why I had to cross over the wires in front of the fuse box under the hood to connect them to their corresponding post. And go buy the nuts. Why could they not be on there to begin with. Oh well, all the cost savings steps still are not going to save them.

GM definitely screwed up by not keeping the old connection setup that was in the GMT800 trucks. It was so easy to install a Prodigy in my 99 that I didn't think at first that I got it right. I wonder if there were too many completley inexperienced people that tried to install a controller wound up complaining to GM?

This new do-it-yourself install of the red wire to the underhood fuse box in the new trucks was another stupid GM failure. Granted, providing tens of thousands of extra nuts from the assembly line could cost them a few hundred bucks but it certainly would have made those of us that tow trailers happy to not have to go chasing down a single 6mm nut.

Same with the damn new fuse type. With the old trucks, not only did you get a controller harness pigtail, you got a fuse too. I'll bet that the money saved will stave off a GM bankruptcy.....