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Trailer wiring help - 1994 Ranger

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Old 10-29-2004, 06:40 PM
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Trailer wiring help - 1994 Ranger

Trying to help my neighbor wire a trailer light plug to his 1994 Ford Ranger. It has the amber turn signals and we're having trouble.

Can anyone provide what wire goes where? We've got the white grounded and we've tried just about everything with the yellow, green and brown wires.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated. They did not have the type where you just plug it into the wiring already. All they had was the plug with four wires that you must splice.

Thanks
 
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Old 10-29-2004, 06:59 PM
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You need the adapter in order to make the turn signals work. You cannot wire a 4 wire harness directly into the Ranger. You need to wire in the 5 wire plug and then use an adapter or else you need to find the plug-in for the Ranger wiring harness.
 
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Old 10-29-2004, 07:10 PM
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you can tap the brown wire into one of the tag light wires..that will give you runing lights. You then need a test light to find out what is the wire for the left/right turn..i usually just take a tester or light bulb (rigged to llight up) and then a safety pin..with the ground on a ground..take the tail lamp off..with the safety pin..poke the wire to make contact..then connect the other wire from the tester or bulb to it..see if it lights when you press on the brake. If i remember yellow is left turn on trailer and green is right turn. It can be done..but remember when you do get it to work...you will need a new TURN SIGNAL FUSE ..it will be marked for trailer towing..if not your signals will blink really fast...and the factory fuse will burn out.
 
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Old 10-29-2004, 07:19 PM
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But then the brake lights won't work on the trailer. He needs the adapter to tie the brake lights and turn signal lights into the same trailer bulb.
 
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Old 10-29-2004, 07:20 PM
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Thanks guys...he's gonna get the adapter.
 
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Old 10-29-2004, 07:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Rocky J
But then the brake lights won't work on the trailer. He needs the adapter to tie the brake lights and turn signal lights into the same trailer bulb.
That's funny..my 86, 91, 93 and 96 Ranger all work.
 
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Old 10-29-2004, 07:34 PM
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ummmm- no they don't. If you wired them all the way you described here, then you have turn signals but no brake lights on your trailer.

Scooby, good call getting the adapter. It's fast, easy and idiot proof. Also you don't need to cut or poke the weathercoating on any wires so you're less likely to have future wire corrosion.
 
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Old 10-30-2004, 01:24 AM
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Thumbs up

^^^^ Truth.

I just stopped by the Mart on the way home and picked up one of the adapters. ~$25. Kinda pricey, but I'll say that it took me 10 minutes to install and tuck cables out of the way and it works perfectly. Snap, snap and a few zip ties and it is done.

I'm pulling a 14' tandem axle flatbed next weekend. No worries about the wiring now.
 
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Old 04-13-2019, 09:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Rocky J
You need the adapter in order to make the turn signals work. You cannot wire a 4 wire harness directly into the Ranger. You need to wire in the 5 wire plug and then use an adapter or else you need to find the plug-in for the Ranger wiring harness.
Hi Rocky, I was going You could help me as to where to find one of these harnesses. Any info would be helpful. Thanks!
 
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Old 08-28-2020, 09:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Rocky J
ummmm- no they don't. If you wired them all the way you described here, then you have turn signals but no brake lights on your trailer.
Question. I'm trying to get my break lights working. In an attempt, they were ran to the same connection as the right-hand brake/signal on the trailer. I got my break lights working on BOTH sides, but the right hand blinker was blinking too fast for the lights to keep up when I tried to use it. Is that what you need the harness to get around, or does this fuse or whatever work as it seems a legitamate method? Not that I'm against paying for the harness, that is.
('94 Mazda B4000 pickup)

PS: Left side blinker worked just fine, and the connection continued to screw up the blinker even when the trailer wasn't plugged in, so probably grounding weird.
 
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