The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 7-Wire signal switch issue

Have a bit of an issue with my brake lights. This switch has been working properly for more than a year.
Now the brake lights do not come on unless one of the turn signals is active. Turn right and left brake light is on, turn left and right brake light is on.
Not turning then there are no brake lights at all. I have power at the rake light switch and power to the red wire when the brakes are applied.
I have a new switch on the way but would like to get to the bottom of this.

Jackie

Try checking the stop switch on the firewall

See if the arm is broken

Have someone look at lights while you remove and touch the two wires together

Jackie ..in my reading up on turn signals lately,, I find that a bad flasher can cause some different malfucntions . It would be interesting to find out ,,that is ,,if you got another flasher for a backup and plug it in and see if that fixes your problem..if you have not already tried this that is .

Good advice, DADS50

I had an old switch that worked intermittently.

If you have to buy one, check Rockauto.com ($14 delivered) agains other vendors.

Ok
I removed the wires from the brake light switch and jumped them and no brake lights.
I have 6.5 volts at the red wire going into the turn signal switch with the brake applied.

Jackie

Did you have voltage at one of the wires on the stop switch?

Did you check the fuse on the firewall(if your using it)

Touching the wires should of made the stops light up

DADS50,
Yes I have voltage at one terminal of the brake light switch when pedal is not pressed, and voltage at the other terminal when it is pressed.
I'm thinking I have a broken contact inside my signal switch?

Strange they didn’t light up when you touched them together

Try a new flasher like suggested above

But your initial description sounded like a stop switch




Did you try the emergency flasher?

Do the brighter tails come on when you engage them?

I disassembled the turn signal switch and found that the screw that holds the rotating contacts together was loose. The turn signal lever is keyed to a post that rotates the contacts.
Since this screw was loose it caused the key to wear down and the contacts to move willy nilly. I honesty don't know how anything was working. Fortunately I did have an old switch exactly like this one that failed in a different fashion that I robbed parts from. Brake lights are back in business....I'll put the new switch somewhere safe for future use!

Thanks for the help

Jackie