hopefully someone on here has a little experience with electric brakes... my electric brakes have been driving me nuts the last few days. I have a dual axle trailer with brakes on both axles, using a draw-tite activator 2 control. I recently realized (by mistake while on gravel) that my back right brake was not working. After taking a look at it, it seemed like it was just a bad connection at the magnet wires. I replaced the connector and checked it. After that it seemed to work on and off then stopped working all together, so i soldered the connection to avoid the problem again. I checked the voltage at the wheel and it matched the others when the brakes were applied. Thinking the magnet went bad, i replaced the magnet. Now i have brakes as long as the wheel is jacked up, the wheel can't be turned by hand. As soon as I try to test drive it (i have been turning the brakes up all the way to 10 on the control just to see if it will lock up) still seems like the brake isn't working at that wheel. All four brakes are in adjustment. I really doubt that it's the magnet again at this point but i don't really see what else it can be. I also took apart the drum brake assembly while I had the drum off just to make sure everything is free, i also put anti-seize on the backing plate in the contact points. I'm really out of ideas on this one, bad wiring is the only thing i can think of, but the left rear wheel is directly spliced off of the right rear and the left rear works great.
Any help is greatly appreciated, I need to get this trailer up and running(actually stopping) asap since its a toy hauler for our W.V. atv trip
Thanks again for any help.

 

Was there rust in the drum? Did the shoes and magnet get seated on the drum faces. These take time to seat in before they will work again like they are supposed to.

Was there any grease passing the wheel seal and possibly on the drum faces or have got into the shoes?

Sounds like electrically you are there.. need to check mechanics.

 

When i pulled the drum off there was a very small amount of rust on some of the components inside, but i would assume that is normal. and no there was not any grease anywhere is should not have been. seems like the wheel seal is fine. When you say it takes time for the magnet to get seated on the drum, you mean like a break in period? Just keep driving it, and putting miles on and eventually it will 'break in' ? I did notice that there was a coating of something on the face of the magnet, am i waiting for that to wear off?

 

The magnet should be mostly clean from dragging on the inside of the drum. It takes time to seat in(break in) so that the drum face and the magnet face can grab each other. Same goes for the shoe linings.

I'd bet as long as there is no contamination (oil/grease) that the brakes will get better as the break in.

If you have never adjusted trailer electric drum brakes they are adjusted differently than a hydraulic brake system. Just saying because you said they were adjusted correctly. The main difference is in a hydraulic system you adjust the shoes until they are just barely dragging the drum. In an electric system you need to over drive the adjustment to center the shoes into the drum, then back them off to a feel like hydraulic. Without over driving the adjuster you probably don't have the shoes centered in the drum. This could be a culprit as well.

 

Did adjusting the brakes solve the problem?
I'm having a similar problem with mine.