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No Brake lights (edited title)

I sold this style on the tool truck. It worked like the copmass idea but a bit better. I only used them a couple times.
https://m.ebay.com/itm/Short-Circuit-Detector-/322270954280

Start at about 10.30 for a quicker idea. This guy talks almost as much as me


The other one is power probe ect2000- I bought mine as the powerprobe 3 Kit. Expensive lil set but worth it if it keeps from burning up components.
 
Don't usually work on Sunday but I really needed to get my truck going and wasn't sure what I was going to get into, so this afternoon I started into it again. First thing I did is rob the brake switch harness off my 96 and put that on, then there was about 6-8" of damaged wire past the junction so I repaired that and in the process installed a fuse holder inline. So I put a 5 amp fuse in it and hit the brakes popped it instantly, kept using bigger fuses all the way up to a 20 amp. It also popped instantly. So I decided to undo the 3 way harness connector at the rear bumper, which takes both rear brake lights and the trailer connection out of the equation. No luck but while I was back there I noticed a white wire coming out of the harness that was melted. It was one that hanging loose back there when I put on the new hitch and trailer plug. It looked like it had been connected to the body as a ground so I reconnected it. Anyways disconnecting that wire fixed it. According to the FSM that white wire is a ground wire. So I may still have some damaged wiring along the frame rail. My theory is it was damaged by whomever spliced into things hooking up the camper wiring and they disconnected it to stop the short. It also explains the broken column cover and the wires that were already unbundled under there. So I might see about getting a new harness from the engine bay back. The only other thing that puzzles me is why the stop/haz fuse wouldn't pop when that occurred but my inline fuse does.
 
You could possibly disconnect everything that the back harness is connected to then pull the harness from the sheath and see to what extent it is damaged. Might not be as bad a suspected.
 
Going back it seemed to start when you changed the hitch and or trailer connector and this ground wire. When you mentioned the trailer brakes weren't working that also points to an issue. I am thinking some wiring is damaged and the brake controller is another path for current along the fuse panel so its possible more current is on the circuit downline that wouldn't blow the stop/haz fuse but would blow an inline downline somewhere. But with damaged wires anything is possible.

Will asked if you towed any different trailers lately.

Could this be a contributor?
Seems I remember 2 conventions that seemed to conflict. There is a 6-way round pin and 7-way flat pin plug. Then if you have to convert from a bigger connector 7 pin "RV style" flat pins to a smaller "farm" round pin 6-way connector 2 wires sometimes get crossed. My truck was originally set up with RV flat pin connector. I had to cross 2 wires in my adapter flat pin to round pin connector. 1 wire was hot always that locked up brakes on my farm gooseneck trailer (with round pins plug) all the time. I had to switch the trailer brake wire with this always hot wire inside my adapter.

Could this have shorted and or caused a problem when you braked that it heated up the wiring but since you didn't stay on the brakes all the time it took it a while to melt insulation then it just snowballed?
 
I think it just took awhile for the "new ground" I hooked up to really become a solid ground and cause issues. This coupled with the fact that the brakes were only intermittently applied.
 
I have recently come to the conclusion I want a fuse on each powered wire just before the 7 pin.

Annoying to check, but had another friend have trailer shorted wire situation on Sunday. Fried his harness at the rear of the truck similar to what your column harness did. The pigtail from the trailer drug on road, and 2 wires wee intermittently getting together, can't believe it but the charge wire got to the brake light wire and was "charging" his brake lights. bulbs got so hot it warped the lenses. I guess since the load spread over the 2 individual 20 amp fuses, they didn't blow but the wire couldn't handle it.
 
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