The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Brake light issues

Can anyone please tell me where the brake lights lead to? My brake lights do not come on when i step on the brake> I am trying to follow it back. Is it the little mechanism below the car to the right side of engine bay (below)??? 1959 Chevy Apache.

the stop light switch is under the toeboard, on the left side of the truck [direction is always from the drivers seat, regardless of where you are] ... it has an arm that is held down [off] when the brake pedal is up and released [on] when the brake is depressed - one wire from it goes to the tail lights via the turn signal switch if you have that, the other goes to power at the light switch

Bill

Had the same problem on my '58 it's easy to fix but took 2 of us to do it.

Thank you kindly guys I will check it out! As a side note I am still having problems with truck grounding out, someone else posted that their should be a ground from frame to bed, but I cant locate any pics or suggestions?

there was no factory wire ground between bed and frame, clean tight bolts did the job, but to avoid problems with tail lights on an old truck you can add a wire anyplace easy to get at, like frame to one of the cross sills or bed sheet metal .... make sure where both ends attach the metal is clean and connections are tight

you could save a lot of running around in circles if you rewire the truck properly with a reproduction harness

Bill

Yes I agree with the reqire, just i dont have the know how and most people want a lot of money too rewire (600-1500), so I have to do with what I have I guess for the time being.

a standard repro factory harness will run you about $200 and is plug and play, fits where the factory put it in the same way and has all the right plugs as original, and can be had with proper alt wiring - all the know how it takes is being able to use common hand tools and some willingness to think

Bill

OK soi reattached a red wire with a white line back to the stop light switch and still doesnt work??? what gives, do those stop light switched go out often???

Did you get out a multimeter and check for voltage at various places along the circuit? Check it from the hot side before the switch, then connect it back up and check it after the switch (with the pedal depressed). That will tell you if it's the brake light switch itself. Does it work as a turn signal? Do the tail lights also not work?

turn signals do work and talights work.

If the tail lights work, it's probably not a ground problem. If it works as a turn signal, I would think that it is the brake switch. Unhook the wire on the side "out" side of the brake light switch and check for voltage from that post to ground with the pedal depressed.

ok i will thank you for the advise, does it matter which of the posts i attach the brake light wire to on the switch?

The posts should not matter. The switch should just close the circuit between the two.

I really think it is the switch because all was working fine until recently and i do not see any damage to the wire. HOwever, when I got to looking at the switch I did not notice any screws holding it up to the underside. Isit screwed from inside or from underneath. I have another identical switch which we used to run the torque mechanism of the autotranny amd hazard lights but that one we were able to screw from underneath to underside. What gives??? any pics?

Hy mejia11, the screws which hold the stoplight switch in come down from inside the cab, hope that helps.

If you want to check the brake light switch for problems, just remove both wires and short them together. The lights should come on. If they do, the switch is the problem. Otherwise, just start tracing voltage with a simple illuminated test light until you find where the voltage loss is happening. The brake signal goes up into the steering column to the turn signal switch, then back to the bed, so there's a possibility the turn switch is part of the problem. The brake signal and the turn signal voltage comes from different places, so it's possible for brakes to work but not turn, or vice versa.
Jerry

Hotrod please excuse the ignorance as I am still learning, but when you say remove both wires and short them together, do you mean for me to take the wire that is hooked up to one of the prongs on the switch then take the other wire hooked up to the other prong and find a small piece of wire and connect both of the wires to it? Or are you saying to get a piece of wire and wrap it around both prongs? Just wondering can I leave the wires attached to the prongs now and just get a piece of wire and attach around both prongs to make a connection between both wires?

yeah mejia just take a short piece of wire and plug it into both female connectors that plug into your brake light switch thats all the switch does anyway if you get brake lights then your switch is proabably bad. Got both of mine working this afternoon btw but I've said that before. I am panning on getting a rear wiring harness after my seat and steering column are completed hopefully by 1st of feb.

Either way would work, but removing both wires and connecting them with a short jumper wire would probably be the best choice. One of the wires should have constant battery voltage, and the other should complete the circuit back to the brake lights. If neither wire has voltage, start looking for a blown fuse upstream of the brake light switch.
Jerry

Thank you kindly to both. Ive been out of town and just got back, so I will tinker with it today.

OK guys I have an orange wire going to one of the prongs on brake switch. ON the other side it looks like I have a black wire and a white wire attached to the second prong of brake switch. Can any one identify these wires?

Update I twisted the white and black together, and the orange and a red wire that were previously attached to the brake switch then jumped them nada. But I am not sure f I am twisting the correct wires together, now my taillights dont work at all!!!!!!!!!!

Did you check the fuses?

apparantly you haven't got a shop manual, so maybe you could print this out and learn how the truck should be wired as opposed to wasting everyones time here asking us to figure out what kind of hash job the PO did when we can't see it first hand ..... as the diagram will show you there should be one white and one orange wire on the brake sw, no others - instead of randomly shorting things out, figure out what's right and what's wrong by following the factory diagram ...... and fix it

Bill

Well thats no fun squeeze that's half the party. My apologies to anyone who feels their time is wasted, if so dont respond, otherwise thanks to all for all the info thus far.

Realized my brake lights were not working as I drove home last evening. Checked the site and found this discussion last night. After reading suggestions, attacked the problem this morning and quickly narrowed the culprit to the brake light switch. Turns out the spring had failed so the switch was staying "open."

Local parts store had one in stock. Was able to install it quickly and easily by myself. Again, the Stovebolt site has provided invaluable insight and direction. Thank you to all contributors for your help in making ownership fun and rewarding.

Bob