Does anyone have a picture of the brake switch and where it hooks into the panel? The 59 that I purchased was apparently redneck engineered. I have a drivers side brake light when the parking lights are off. But no parking light when the parking lights are on. The passenger side brake light doesn't work at all but the parking light works. Both blinkers work with and without parking lights on. Sorry if this is confusing.

 

From the factory it had a hydraulic switch on the brake M/C. Brake light should be wired through the turn signal switch. The brakes and rear turn signals share the same filament in the right and left rear bulbs the park lights have the other filament. You may need a wiring diagram to cypher the way the turn signal switch separates the front and rear turn indicators. The dash indicators run off the front turn lights so you don't light up the dash when you squash the brakes.
You can pickup a nice laminated wiring diagram off Evil bay for about 20$
Good luck!

 

C1AZ-13480-A (replaced 0A-13480) .. Brake Light Switch (Motorcraft SW-24).

Threads directly into master cylinder, or to brass fitting that threads into master cylinder.

Notorious for getting gummed up with dirty brake fluid...and when this occurs, the little charmer no longer works.

Applications: ALL 1940/66 FoMoCo vehicles

 

Just for an update I'm still working on this. Hadn't had a chance to try anything yet cause I got caught up working on the new yoke and old rear end problem that I'm having. Hopefully I'll be driving soon

 

first jump the brakelight switch. then go to the back and check the ground from the frame to the tail light housing. see if the brake lights work. THere mignt be a different poor connection on the other light housing. You could have an incomplete or poor ground between the frame and the bed. Many of the beds are mounted on a small rubber pad on top of the frame and require the mounting bolts to be the ground. Over time they can get rusty and create the poor contact. I have used the voltmeter/ohm meter to test resistance between light housing and frame. My quick fix was to run a ground wire to one of the lights. I had some kind of similar problem in past. that fixed it. (don't remember what the specific lighting display was.). I think it was no brake lights then.

Good Luck
Marc

 

Thanks Marc, I'll try that next. This one lighting problem is keeping me from having a legal driveable vehicle. I never thought three wires could be this problematic.

 

Hello tbean, the brake lights on my '59 were giving me fits. Then I downloaded the wiring diagram available on Google Images and figured out that the power for the brake lights comes out of one of the headlight switch circuit breakers, which was bad (go figure...). That switch is now being reproduced... in China, of course, but it is available. I replaced mine and it solved that problem. The brake lights also go through the turn signal switch, since brake and turn share the same lamp filament. This can be the source of other types of difficulties.

 

And..... Drumroll please...... The lights work. A big thank you to everyone especially Marc. The ground was the main problem. After that I fixed a broken wire in the steering column and bam, I have lights. Thank you all.

Tom