brake controller... possibly
 

i purchased a used hilo. i purchased a used brake controller. either one doesn't work, or both don't work. MY BRAKE DE
when i purchased the trailer, i was told that the brakes are not hooked up. well, when i was installing my LED light bar (with backing lights), i had issues with the backing lights not working. i traced it back to the 7 way plug. turns out, a previous owner replaced the 7 wire wire with a 6 wire wire (reverse lights wire on plug was used with the blue brake wire). once i replaced the wire with a 7 wire, i got the reverse lights to work. so. when i hooked up the brake controller (tekanosha (sp?) voyager), the light on the controller did not come on.
here is my problem- i have tried to separate the issues and try and figure out which one it is. i got the Hopkins plug to use to hook up the controller. when i went on their website, here is what i got. hopefully the pic works. my truck is a 99 silverado. (ok, looks like you will have to click on the pdf, see the diagram at the bottom)


the truck side only has 4 wires, and the guide shows no white wire, but 2 blues (light and dark). we tried a couple combinations of wires- color to same color, red and black switched, white to red, then to black. nothing was working (light on controller did not come on when connected to a trailer with known working brakes). so i finally had the idea to just hook up the 12v line on truck to the blue wire to see if maybe it was a broken wire. the blue wire on the trailer had power. i don't think this necessarily concludes anything, but at least i know that the blue with is not broken.
question regarding the controller. is there a way to test the controller AT the controller, or should i assume that it is the controller and just purchase a new one?
once i get the controller figured out, then i can see if the brakes on the trailer work. but as of now, it looks like the first issue is the controller. i have a friend coming over tomorrow to hook his truck up to the trailer to see if the brakes work (the same friend whom i tried hooking up his trailer to my truck to see if my controller works)

Is the controller hard wired to the tow vehicle or is it plugged into the prewired socket under dash socket with a Tekonsha adapter cable? Do you have the Tekonsha instructions? What is your tow vehicle? Does it have a prewired trailer cable socket? Have you checked the brake wiring on the trailer? You could have a misplaced connection somewhere.
I don't know of a way to check a controller by itself, RV shops have a tester that plugs into the tow vehicle socket that tests the lights and the controller. You can use a test light or a multimeter to check for power to the socket. Having your friend plug in may be a good idea to see what end has the problem.

I found the instruction sheet for your controller. It says that no light indicates a corroded connection at the trailer plug, or loose power or ground connection.

Here is a link:Tekonsha - Voyager®