Brake switch

[Supermike]

Hey guys,

I'm having a "funky" issue where my tail lights work, my brake lights work, but the right-side tail light will go out at times when the brakes are depressed. Additionally, when you press in the brakes, the brake lights come on at first, then go off, then will come back on if you press them really hard.

Does this sound like the brake switch to you? I've also got one wire going to the switch that is "spliced" with one of those stupid butterfly clips for reasons unknown. Ther are not two wires... it just looks like someone cut it, then put it together with one of those. I plan to fix that, too...

Anyone know off-hand where to get the original 67-style switch (that mounts to the push rod)?

Thanks as always!!

Mike

[seattle67]

Hi Mike,
The right side brake light going on and off intermittently could be a loose bulb, or dirty connection, or bad ground or a combination of all the above. Somewhere along the line you have a "bad" connection, not bad enough to completely fail, but just bad enough to cause problems and be a pain to figure out. About all you can do is follow the path the electricity is trying to take and clean up connections as you go.

The other problem of the brakes going on when you first push, then off, and then back on when you push harder; if it does that every time, consistently, then I would suspect the switch, or the end of the brake rod that actuates the switch could be worn, so you have a flat spot.

As far as replacement switches, I believe I have seen them in either LMC or NPD, but I could be wrong.

[Supermike]

Thanks, Dan...

I think I definitely need to fix that splice... I hate those stupid connectors, and there's no reason for it to be there. I may do all three and replace the bulb, switch, and fix the wire. And the brake rod should be out of play once the new booster and MC are installed next week.

[Supermike]

Ok, turns out the "splice" was actually a DOUBLE-splice. One was one of those goofy butterfly splices (not sure what else to call them). I can't figure out why it was there, but it looked like it had been moved once, which weakened the wire in one spot. The OTHER splice then had a 2nd wire twisted on one end that branched to the old electric trailer brakes.

Removed all that, put on new female spade ends, and that pretty much fixed the problem!

I say "pretty much", because the left rear light was still acting flaky, even after I replaced the wires. I didn't understand until I pulled the bulb and found that the contacts weren't in such great shape anymore. Fortunately, I had a new one laying around. (Note to self: pick up 1157 bulbs)

Then, in the process of messing with all that, I somehow jiggled my jumper wire for making the parking brakes stay on with the headlights. That had the effect of making the left turn signal light on the dash come on with the lights, and the left front parking light to barely flicker on with the signal. Very weird. It took me a while to track it down, but fixed it in the end.

I've got a new brake light switch coming tomorrow, so I'm going to install that when the booster is put on, just for the sake of having a clean start with that switch. It's sort of an important one. LOL!