I was wondering if anyone has ever really taken apart a tekonsha p3 brake controller. I came up with an idea a couple weeks ago but I'm interested in seeing what the guts of a P3 controller look like but don't really wanna dissect my one and only right now lol.... I want to take the guts out of a 2 button overhead console and place the guts of the p3 controller in there so it would be ceiling mounted. The screen would be in front and the 2 buttons would then be occupied by the 4 of the controller. It may take some fabbing but I'm trying to do some homework first before I tear into my break controller. Any exploded views anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys

 

Any takers? Not sure if Tekonsha will email me their exploded views knowing I want to modify it

 

Sounds like a great Idea, and doesn't too hard to accomplish really, wish I had the information to pass along to you though.

 

I emailed Tekonsha last night but not sure if they are going to help me there... I'm almost ready to see if I can find a broken P3 and buy it just so I can see the makeup of the inside....

 

This is an interesting idea, and I'm pretty sure you could make it work. There is plenty of space in the overhead. That much I can confirm. I've never had the Prodigy apart, but I'm pretty sure you will find nothing inside except for a single circuit board with imbedded LCD and buttons. The levers might be a separate potentiometer, but I would even bet those are on the board. Even the inertia chip will be solid state and on the board.

Another nice thing is that the P3 can be mounted at any angle, and self compensates.

My biggest question is whether overhead is a good location for the "Oh Shoot!" levers. I am not sure I would want mine up there.

 

Yeah you do strike a good question on that one..... hmmm

 

Is there really ANY good place to mount a brake controller so that it's convenient to hit the "panic switch"?

 

Ford had it correct when they put it right in front of the shifter... your hand is right there anyway. Usually no more than a couple inches away while cruising in overdrive... direct drive is slightly farther away, but it's in a direct line forward.

As far as the modification in the OP... if you go that far, you could get a few wires, use a soldering iron to remove the pot from the board and replace it with the wires, then mount the pot where you want it to be and connect the wires again.

As far as the guts of the controller, it will be a single board. The only question would be about the mounting of the readout and the buttons/*****. If they are not directly connected to the board I think it would make mounting much more flexible, as you could emulate the face on your console and then put the PCB wherever you want to.

 

X2 that is why mine is mounted in the cubby hole.

To the OP you gave me an interesting idea. I want to put in an F650 lower dash but that gets rid of the cubby hole and my preferred place for the TBC (I also have a P3). So I thought about cutting a hole in the flat area below the single hole on the left and placing a removable cubby cup from the '05+ models and then trying to mount the TBC in there. However I kind of like your idea of taking the controller apart and mounting the LCD, buttons and manual brake lever some how directly in the flat area and the board could go on the backside somewhere out of view.

 

What happens to the test lever on the bottom, when you bury the controller?