Purchased a kit from J.C. Whitney to change from the 4 pin to the 7 pin. Kit is made by Hidden Hitch and includes the wiring harness, relays, & fuses. However the wire connections for the kit's harness do not match those on my truck. I emailed Hidden Hitch but their info shows the kit should fit. Since my truck was one of the first 97's there must have been a desgn change in the wiring connectors at some point.

Does anybody have any ideas on what I could do? The wire connector for the 4 pin set-up is gray with four wires (green, black, yellow, & brown). A second unused connector at the same location is black and has two wires (orange & black). All six wires emerge from the same bundle that runs down along the frame. Each connector has one pin per wire.

 

I bought all of my conversion stuff from Ford and it all plugged right in. I'd buy the Ford harness and see if it works. If it does, then get the relays, fuses from Ford and return the JCWhitney kit. I can't believe that they changed the plug but stranger things have happened.

 

It's one of those strange things. I went to www.trailerwiring.com (got it off a package of wiring harnesses at Wal-Mart). When looking for products for my truck, the list had a breakdown for 97's made 01/96 to 11/96. The wiring connection for one of their 4 pin harnesses matches what my truck has. Changes do happen.

 

Black Truck: Did you finally get the wire connections all worked-out?

Assuming you already have the 4-pin, the 7-pin adds:
*Electric Brakes wire (usually blue on trailer end)
*Negative (white)
*Back-up lights wire


My '97 came equipped with the tow package (7-pin), but I had to wire the trailer myself by basically adding the electric brakes wire (blue) and the extra negative wire (white) to the connector. If I remember correctly, 2-sets of wires go to the negative. My car trailer doesn't have back-up lights, so this wasn't wired. Also, I don't remember wiring the positive (+). I could see bad consequences if the (+) was wired instead of the (-). Keep in mind of the correct orientation of the diagram you're viewing. Some people get the left crossed-over from the right.

On the controller side under the dash, here's a picture of the electric brake controller and the wire adapter. You can follow the different color wires...


and here's the wire diagram at the hitch...


I had no problems at all doing the wires and it was my first time. Only ran into a different matter on the right side of my electric brakes because the manufacturer looped the wire over the axle which pinched on my suspension...it's at the dealer getting fixed:


Hope this helps.

--Warren

 

Talked to two different people last week at the dealer's service dept. Both said I wouldn't even need to add any relays or fuses. I found a set-up at Wal-mart that will work. Asked the service manager and he didn't see anything wrong with it. It's a combination 4 pin & 7 pin. I'm not planning on diving into the trailer pulling scene right now but I at least want to have things set up just in case. Also, plan to add an auxiliary back up light to the truck once I get the 4/7 pin harness hooke up.

 

I'm currently changing over my 4 pin to 7 pin on my 99 F150 XLT as well. A neighbor gave me a Tekonsha controller from his E150, which plugged right into the plug under the console by the gas pedal in my truck.

Since the interior of my truck is obviously wired up for a controller, I'm hopeful that there's a blue wire at the rear of the truck too. If not, though, where do I need to run a wire to in order to complete the installation of my 7 pin? Is there a place in the fuse panel, or in the relay box under the hood? The owners manual doesn't seem to have much info on this...

Do the backup lights wire directly to the taillight ***'y? I thought I read somewhere that you shouldn't splice directly to them. Should I use a relay with a seperate power source?

Any help is appreciated!

 

Spridel,

4 - 7-pin conversion

 

Thanks Jimb - That's just what I needed to know!