Trailer Electric Brakes Not Working

[Steven@147]

Been there on our current trip, On our Ram this trip started getting the message "Check Trailer Brake Wiring", "Trailer Brake Disconnected", intermittently. At our Campground lay over I crawled under the rig and checked the axle brake wiring. Made sure the grommets were still intact in the hole on the axle tube and checked the wires for chaffing. Moved the wires in and out of the axle tube hole, there was slack. Then checked each wheel wiring to the magnets. Found on a couple that wire tie on the back of the brake backing plate had come loose and was allowing the brake magnet wires to flop around. Fixed. Pulled on the wire crimps, no wires popped out. Other than that everything on the trailer brake axle wiring looked ok but of course you can't see the wiring going through the axle tubes. Checked the big ground connection inside the front storage compartment next to the battery, all tight no loose wires.
Then turned my attention to the 7 way plug, pin 2 Blue wire is the brakes, used my pocket knife and scrapped the terminals on the plug and the receptacle, bent the blades a little on the plug for a tighter fit in the receptacle then reconnected, no moisture in the plugs, when we left the campground the next morning I tested the trailer brakes, all ok. The next leg of the trip was 300 miles and no messages or problems with the trailer brakes. Good thing because I did not want to go through that long down grade going into Cincinnati from Kentucky on I 71/75 with no trailer brakes. But then again down shifting and using the exhaust brake I hardly used the truck and trailer brakes anyway.

If it happens again I'll dive into the pin box junction, its just hard to get to on our rig. Its hard to get one arm and hand up inside the pin box to get at the junction box and the wiring, let alone two arms and hands up in there to get crimpers up in there to re-crimp the wires into new terminals. If that isn't the problem I'll get new wire and rewire the axle brake connections and run the wires on the outside of the tubes on the back side of the axles.

Brake magnets and wire connections, axle tube wires, body wiring, ground connection, junction box, 7 way plug and cord on the trailer.
Then the tow vehicle 7 way receptacle, body wiring, power and brake module. That's about it for troubleshooting. Between the possibilities and the probabilities, the majority of trailer brake problems will be with the trailer.