The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Yet another Brake light thread

'53 3100 with:
12v system, 12v bulbs
signal-stat 900
new brake light switch from classic-parts
confirmed clean, unabridged wire from fuse block to brake light switch to tail lights.

these Tail lights


i've been scouring the forums for weeks now and just today got all the lights operating as they should minus the brake lights (headlights low and hi, parking lights,tail-lights, front and rear turn signals, all four corners and hazard lights)

BUT no matter how i wire the brake lights, i can't get them to operate. i replaced the (20amp) fuses a couple times just to cross that off as an issue. i pulled the multimeter and i'm not getting any voltage at any stage in the line (wire end coming from the light switch in the cab, anywhere along the fuse, nor at the "hot" wire end going to the brake light switch.

i even tried removing the bullet connectors at the brake light switch and connecting the wires directly to eachother just to eliminate the brake light switch as the issue. still nothing

i DO have continuity through the fuse and from the top of the fuse to the "hot" wire end going to the brake light switch. i'm thoroughly confused and have printed copies of both the factory chevy wiring and the factory signal-stat 900 wiring


ALSO: if i tie the single brake light wire at the rear TO the tails with the turn signal wires, i can't operate the turn signals individually because the voltage from the turn signal jumps the brake wire and sends voltage to the other rear turn signal, so am i supposed to send TWO brake light wires out of the brake light switch and give a brake light wire to each tail light just to isolate the voltage? the electrical diagrams don't show two wires, but that seems like the only way to isolate the tail lights from eachother. (the rear lights are labeled to have tail lights on one wire, and brakes/turns on the other)

The brake light function is handled thru the signal switch.

Wire the left rear brake light to the corresponding wire called for on the signal switch diagram.
Wire the right rear brake light to the corresponding wire called for on the signal switch diagram.

Tail lights are seperate circuit and get wired to the headlamp switch.

On your signal switch there should be one wire labeled to stop switch.

Hope that helps

just traced down the signal-stat wires, here's the wires on the signal-stat and what they are wired to:

blue wire- flahser
yellow wire- flasher
red wire- right front turn signal
grey wire- left rear turn signal
green wire- left front turn signal
black wire- right rear turn signal

the blue and yellow wires go to the flasher, and the third prong on the flasher goes to the light switch on the dash.

the brake light switch has two wires, one leads to the rear to connect to the brake lights, and the other comes from the fuse panel on the firewall under the hood, then goes to the light switch on the dash.



is there supposed to be a seventh wire to go to the brake light switch? and if so, i would connect it to the "hot" wire on the brake light switch? i think that's the missing piece.

Is there a 7th wire. Black/gray?

FOUND IT! i started rolling back the tight and clean electrical tape at the flasher and about 9 inches up the line, i found the dead-ended black/grey wire.. the electrical tape was so tight i figured it had been taped up by the signal-stat manufacturer, and was hesitant to undo it.. i think this is it, i'll post up the results

ok, i tied the black/grey wire into the wire going from the brake light switch to the rear lights.

at the rear of the truck, i tied the single brake light wire to two other wires, and tied those two into the mix with the turn signal wires in each light casing.

i still can't get the brake lights to light up when i activate the brake light switch, and now i can't get the turn signals to act individually because they're basically jumpered by the brake light wires. same as before

The black/grey will go the the stop switch on the firewall

The other wires should go the way You described above

Black/grey to stop switch

Here is an simple drawing I made when I was wiring my 7 wire switch
...click...

It shows how the wires should run

I had problems because I had no labels for the wires I was using
Used Cletus tech tip to figure it out.

The drawing is not specific to your switch but you can see how the wires route.

I used a 3 prong flasher.

Congrats.

> SignalStat 900 diagram

- Lonnie

that drawging looks mostly like what i have now, except that at the brake light switch, there's two wires attaching, but one goes straight to the lights themselves with a wire connecting it to the flasher, then the other goes to the fuse block, then to the light switch on the dash.

pic showing the brake light wire being split to go to both brake lights (thus causing the turns to jumper to eachother)

pic showing the brake light switch wiring.. wire coming up from the brake light and then connecting to the wire headed to the rear of the truck

pic showing the wiring of the fuse block .. the red wire coming in through the firewall is attached to the black/grey wire, i stuck the wire inline with the fuse block after i tried connecting it to the OTHER wire at the brake light switch. neither way works

The brake lights do not tie together.

Left and right run individually to the lever switch


the firewall switch should have the black/grey wire on one post
And the power on the other.

Sounds like your close just need to trace things out

so there's actually no wire going to the rear of the truck for the sole purpose of brake lights? the signal-stat does the brake light function off the turn signal wires?

i'll have to check this out in the morning, i'm done for the day. thanks for all the help so far!

Yes. The signal lever works the brake function on the 7 wire signal switch.

You can bypass the the fuse block on the fire wall with the black/grey wire, go directly to the stop switch with it.

Take a brake, I went through the same frustrations.

Looks like you have 4 wires running to the rear
You should only have 3

I marked you pic. I'm assuming the tails are tied together

...your pic...

...your pic...

you got it all right, the red wire that you labeled "1" comes from the brake light switch, so i'll just delete that whole wire as well as the deletions you made on it, and send the black/grey wire to the brake switch and send the other connection on the brake switch to the power and that should be it! what you made in those pics is what i had visualized from your last post, just gotta wait for sun-up to get back at it

wired it like you said, the brake lights still don't work off the brake light switch. new problem though, now when i activate the right turn signal, the front right turn flashes dimly as well as the front left turn signal. the rears work fine, the left turn signals front and back work, just not the front right. also now the tail lights don't work.

so before i wired up the black/grey wire, i had all functions but the brake lights, now i've lost the tail lights and front right turn signal. just got back in from investigating and there are no exposed wire sections, no wires crossing eachother, all the wires coming from the signal-stat are going to where they should be going, all the wires from the flasher are going to the right place, the brake light switch is hooked to the light switch on the dash in the right place, everything seems to be exactly right

The tail lights are a separate circuit
Originally they tie into the headlamp switch on the Tail lamp post
As long as you have power and pull the headlamp knob they will work.

What bulb are you using for parking lamps?
You should have two wires off each parking lamp.
Wire the brightest light to the turn signals
Right front to red wire on your 900
Left front to green wire on your 900

A dim light could be a bad ground or you used the park lamp wire


Take the two wires off the stop switch on the firewall, touch them together and see if the brake lights come on. They should as long as you have voltage. One of those wires should be hot.

the front parking lamps are supposed to be grounded through it's casing, but i threw a ground wire on it from your suggestion and they're working perfect now, and i also got the brake lights going by wire brushing the fuse block and the connectors.. but the tail lamps still don't work. i tried wire brushing the fuse block and connectors, i even put a little anti-seize compound on the connectors to help conductivity but still nothing. i put the multimeter to it and i'm getting voltage from the light switch to the fuse block, but i can't get any volts on the fuse itself or any connections past it. i have continuity through the fuses too,


UPDATE: i was getting continuity through all the fuses in my box, but for the hell of it (and shear exhausted options) i switched out the fuse and everything is operational now.

thanks so much for the help DADS!