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Hi All!
Dunnoo if this has ever been covered here but if it has consider it a review.
Just got in from replacing my failed hydraulic brake light switch with a simple mechanical one.
My main reason for changing to this switch type was I am planning on doing the Vicky front end conversion at some time over the coming winter and am most likely gonna have to re plumb the brake lines anyhow.
This conversion uses NAPA PN# "SL169"
It simply involves removing the rubber bumper off of the brake swing arm
inserting the SL169 in the square hole that the rubber came out of and adjusting the tin nuts so the tip of the switch comes in contact with the swingarm body assembly where the rubber bumper used to contact.
Wiring it up simply involves either extending from or removing the old "Bullet" type connectors or soldering and shrink tubing (recommended) enough new wire to run thru the firewall into the cab and to the new switch and installing new spade type connectors to plug onto the new SL169 switch.
whole thing took me about 45 minutes (including trynna find tools i hadn't put away when I last worked in the garage back before summer)
Great minds think alike! I just did almost the same thing on my '58, however, I drilled an additional hole just for the switch. On the original applications that switch was never used as a pedal bumper and probably not designed for that. Since we don't put a lot of mileage on our trucks, you will probably be fine using the switch for a stop but I wasn't comfortable with that on my own truck.
Great minds think alike! I just did almost the same thing on my '58, however, I drilled an additional hole just for the switch. On the original applications that switch was never used as a pedal bumper and probably not designed for that. Since we don't put a lot of mileage on our trucks, you will probably be fine using the switch for a stop but I wasn't comfortable with that on my own truck.
Lou Manglass
I was kind of thinking the same thing, how long the switch would last as a bump stop or if it would shove through the pal nit eventually.
I was kind of thinking the same thing, how long the switch would last as a bump stop or if it would shove through the pal nit eventually.
In my experience, when the bumper wears out in older vehicles the front of the switch eventually splits where the plunger goes in and results in failure of the switch. I have also seen them shove through the pal nuts. To be fair, plastic is a lot better today than when that switch was used in current production (prior to & into the 90's) so given the probability of less use and better product quality it might function fine as a bumper too.
For like $7 you can easily keep an extra switch on hand if the body of the switch does fail it only takes like 2 minutes to change it out anyways.
Mine doesn't seem to have a lotta pressure/force on it anyways, but saying that, I do have the Dodge/Bendix power brake booster & master setup.
09-28-2017, 07:34 PM
