the brake light switch thats mounted to the brake pedal is giving me problems. i noticed i had to press the pedal had to get it in gear and also for the lights to come on. i replaced it with a new one. still the same problem. im stumped. any ideas????

 

You probably need to adjust the switch away from the pedal.

 

how do you adjust it? i pulled it back out but no clue how it would be adjusted

 

yeah help me too. My brake lights don't come on until way down on the pedal travel. How do I adjust it. Mine is a 1989 f250 but it should be the same.

 

Ok, I gave you a bad steer. Looked at mine today, no adjustment.
You need to get under the dash with a torch and see what is happening. If there is not enough free play in the brake to release the switch before the pedal goes hard then you need to get more free play in the pedal.
If there is free play but the switch does not activate the brake lights as soon as the pedal releases the switch then you have a bad/sticking switch.

 

i figured mine out! all i did was pull it off flipped it the opposite way and put it back on. works fine now

 

Anybody ever find a correct fix for this? I have the same problem on my 9 E-150.

 

I had a very similar issue with my old 1992 F350. After replacing most of the braking system (brake switch, pads, shoes, master cylinder, RABS hydraulic module, brake hardware) it turned out to be a bad vacuum booster. Steve83 used the term "over-active" brake booster, he was 100% correct. I always had plenty of braking power, although I consider the pedal to be on the light side. It was the pesky switch operation that was a PITA to deal with.

 

I've always had the same issue. The brake lights don't come on til I'm just about stopped.

 

I realize this is an old thread, but I found it when trying to cure my problem. I have an '82 F150 w/ power brakes and 4wd. I just replaced my master cylinder, and brake booster with a reman. In doing so, my brakes worked much better, but my lights wouldn't come on anymore. The new brake light switch was only $10 so I replaced it with hopes of a fix, but that didn't happen. The reason the switch wasn't working is because the knuckle from the brake booster was too warn down to have the switch release the circuit. What I did was take a small cut, roughly 1/4" X 1", of 22 gauge steel and slid it between the switch and the knuckle to fill the void. I also put a 90 degree bend at the top so it won't fall through. With not having such a big gap, my switch now does what it was built to do. I hope this helps somebody.

Jason

 

just used brake cleen on mine and it released a sticking switch

 

This helped me fix my 92 bronco. My lights was staying on all the time. I replaced 2 switches and then I read you post. I had to put switch on backwards. Thanks