Hoppy trailer wiring harness doesn't fit (1 Viewer)

[bysiklest]

I know I'm bringing an old thread back out but I haven't been able to find an answer.

I just purchased the same Hopkins 43405 kit for adding trailer wiring to my '93. I could not find the plug needed on the PS behind the panel as described by most on here. The driver side plugged right in, ran the green wire across to it. One thing weird was the instructions said this was a yellow wire. The PS plug looked the same as the one on the driver side, but none of the vehicle's plugs fit it on that side. I looked both behind the panel and underneath the truck. I also pulled the tail light itself out and nothing.

Can someone take a quick photo of the PS plug used on both the vehicle side and the wiring kit side? My kit had 2 4 pin plugs but I could only find 2, 6, and 8 pin connectors behind the PS rear panel.

I am thinking the wrong wiring harness was in the correctly labeled box, or my vehicle has some odd electrical connections back there.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.

 

[DustyRoads]

I had the same issue as mentioned at the beginning of the thread. I haven't heard anybody talk about re-pinning the connectors. I was able to pull the pins and sockets from the new and old style plugs and match up the plugs. The OEM pins will fit in the Hoppy plugs and vise versa. This makes for a plug and play look without splicing and cutting wires.

 

[Brunorelli]

I wins I would have read this yesterday. I read a different post that says Hopkins plugs right in. Almost ten years later and the genius' at Hopkins still haven't figured it out or don't care.probably the later. So if you have a 91 don't buy Hopkins. So frustrating.

 

[Malahki]

Thought I'd update this thread for others searching. The Hopkins harness does work with the early trucks. Its really not as complicated as people have made it out to be. Their is no need to splice the harness or replace or mutalate the plugs. @DustyRoads had it right. Simply unpin the female plug ends on the harness and tail lights and switch them. The harness is now plug and play

Before (excuse bad pics)

After

Test connections before installing

 

[Brunorelli]

Have recently come into a small tent trailer, but trailer light wiring on my Cruiser didn't work, so I ordered the Hoppy 43405 T harness, ( http://www.trailerwiring.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?part=43405 ) based on multiple threads here who speak well of them.

Pulled the rear panels and unplugged the tail light wiring harnesses, only to find that the Hoppy plugs don't fit. I can see that all the connection points are the exact same, but the plastic sockets just don't fit together at all.

I'm 100% certain that I'm looking at the right truck harness for the truck taillight. Just appears that the Hoppy harness, labeled to fit 1991-1998 does not indeed fit at least my 1991.

Anyone else ever run into this problem with a Hoppy?

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed and my wallet is $45 lighter.

Guess I'll break out the wirecutters.

P
View attachment 158621View attachment 158622

Have recently come into a small tent trailer, but trailer light wiring on my Cruiser didn't work, so I ordered the Hoppy 43405 T harness, ( http://www.trailerwiring.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?part=43405 ) based on multiple threads here who speak well of them.

Pulled the rear panels and unplugged the tail light wiring harnesses, only to find that the Hoppy plugs don't fit. I can see that all the connection points are the exact same, but the plastic sockets just don't fit together at all.

I'm 100% certain that I'm looking at the right truck harness for the truck taillight. Just appears that the Hoppy harness, labeled to fit 1991-1998 does not indeed fit at least my 1991.

Anyone else ever run into this problem with a Hoppy?

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed and my wallet is $45 lighter.

Guess I'll break out the wirecutters.

P
View attachment 158621View attachment 158622

You can try shaving the plastic off the sides but that only worked on one side for me

 

[slceso]

Just did this, here are some more pics for those squeamish about responding (def the way to go). Thanks to those above who mentioned it, because I would have been seriously pissed if I discovered this at the point of execution having not read this thread beforehand. Who knows what I might have done in desperation

Tips if you haven't done this before:

Take a picture or diagram your wire pinout before you take it all apart. Note that one of the harness y-connectors will have all black wires except for one yellow (they just pass straight to the same pin location on the other side.

Remember you are exchanging the plug from the tail light with the same configuration plug on the y-connection.

Use a scribe or small screwdriver to disengage the pin retaining clips in the socket of the connector while applying steady pressure pulling the wire and pin from the connector. Take your time!

The plug housing on the y-connector has this additional clip thing you can pop out. The lower pins didn't seem to want to slide out until I popped this guy. Similarly, when I installed the pins, the wanted to slide out until I bottomed them all out in the connector and re-engaged this rectangular clip.

When reinstalling, the individual pins wires may have to be rotated 180 degrees in the connector socket to ensure the pin retaining clips engage again (pin location in the connector remains the same!).

After re-pinning, you should test the complete function of each light before completely re-assembling. I had swapped the ground and turn signal, and figured it out before it was a serious pain to resolve.

Another pic showing that the pins are very similar if not identical

 

[HillCountryTX]

Thanks to this thread and the helpful posts, I went ahead and installed a Hopkins 43405 tow wiring harness in our 1991 Land Cruiser (HDJ81, Right Hand Drive, 4.2 l turbo diesel with the 1-HDT engine). However...

Here's my issue...after depinning and switching the plug n' play connectors (like what @Malahki and @slceso recommend) and getting the Hopkins 43405 kit installed, I went and tested each of the lighted components (i.e. brakes, left turn signal, right turn signal, hazards, etc.)....everything worked just fine, so I closed everything back up and finished the install. Shortly after, when I was driving my LC after this install with NO TRAILER, I noticed that my blinkers now blink super fast whenever I turn my blinker on while I'm hitting the brake pedal. If I let go of the brake pedal, the blinker goes back to normal blink speed. Our blinkers/lights worked just fine before the Hopkins installation! The only difference was that the Hopkins 43405 had been installed (no trailer connected...no towing, etc.) and now my blinkers will blink super fast if I hit the brakes. I was very careful on the wiring and making sure the wires all go to the correct spot. Plus, when I tested all the components (i.e. left blinker, right blinker, hazards, brakes, reverse) they all work just fine!

Do I need to install a heavy duty flasher? It blows my mind that just adding the Hopkins kit would require me to replace the flasher...

Any ideas???

 

[HillCountryTX]

As an update to this situation, I've since removed the Hopkins 43405 tow wiring harness and returned the wiring back to stock. I had checked, and rechecked the connections to make sure that I hadn't switched any wires on accident. I had also tried installing a new heavy duty electronic flasher (NAPA EP36) in place of the stock flasher, thinking that may solve the rapid blinker problem I mention in my previous thread post above. It didn't! After uninstalling the Hopkins, returning the wiring back to normal, and switching out the NAPA EP36 for the stock Toyota flasher, I am no back to a functioning blinker/brake with no rapid blinker! However, I also have not tow wiring harness...and so begins the search for a better tow wiring harness. My intuition tells me either the Hopkins 43405 converter unit was bad to begin with, and therefore interfering with the blinker rate. To be continued...

When I figure out a tow wiring harness AND a proper heavy duty electronic flasher, I will report back for others. I guess the 1991 Land Cruiser (have an HDJ81 Japanese right hand drive model) is just a different beast!

 

[luckyluke318]

You can shave the Hopkins and it easily plugs in. However I had the rapid blinkers problem as well on my 91’ I will try a load resistor.