Okay I am now completely lost. After I put my dash back together, I went to start the truck and as usual the little brake light did not come on but, I then started the truck and the brake light came on for a second and turned back off.

To put it simply it seems like the brake light comes on for the initial bulb check immediately after starting. It stays on for a couple seconds with all the other bulbs and then turns off. So the bulb is working and it is receiving power but yet my brake light is not working in conjunction with the pedal.. On the other hand my pedal switch all seems to be working because the PCM is reading that the pedal is on or off when I move the pedal. Wtf?

 

Interesting. I never did a continuity check on the wiring harness pin on mine. Out of pure laziness I wish I had a known good gauge cluster to swap in real quick as an easy troubleshoot. Nothing appeared wrong with mine either on the rear circuit board but who knows. I don't know what the bulb hole for "BRK" is about on the other side either. Some clusters it appears to be used and some not. (Come to think of it I don't think the WIF light works on mine either when I roll the key on for the bulb check, and I'm pretty sure I pulled all of the bulbs looking for blown ones when I had the cluster out, but it was awhile ago.)

Somebody with a working brake light confirm for us please the bulb labeled "BRAKE" is the one we are looking for to light up with the parking brake set. Bottom/right corner next to the "DOOR AJAR" light...at least on the older 99-01 clusters it looks like should be the one.

Some better pics of the back of a cluster should make this clear what I'm talking about:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/18560102922...Bk9SR8SyzOjyYA

The other problem is that I don't think you are cold enough yet in Fairhope, AL for the high idle to come on anyway. I looked at the 10 day forecast and those overnight lows aren't low enough. Now up here in Yankee-land we already had a couple mornings last week in the low 40's and it bumped itself up a little bit after a minute or so. I don't usually set the parking brake overnight but sometimes ill nudge the pedal down an inch or so with my hand to release the switch and dare it to come on. It has to be below 50F at least for it to bump up even a little bit. And if I read your last post right it sounds like you said Forscan just told you the switch is working and the PCM is correctly reading it as "on" or "off"

 

I know it's not cold enough for my high idle to kick in automatically yet but, I tested all this last year when it was 13° outside. Actually I think it was a couple years ago but still. Even at 13° outside I could not get the high idle to work. Right now I just want my brake light to work lol

Also yes that is what I was implying. Forscan tells me that the parking brake is on or off based on where I put the pedal so to me that says the pedal switch has to be working properly.

 

Are you sure you are monitoring the correct brake pedal switch for on/off conditions?

 

 

My thought exactly.

I think there’s too much faith being put in the FORScan results. Test the silly switch.

 

yeah that doesn't make a lot of sense but the switch itself is a $10-15 part. As cheap as that is I'd replace it anyway and see if anything happens. If you saw the bulb come on then I guess that would have to rule out the cluster or the bulb (or the wiring), and the PCM seeing the switch is on or off proves the wiring from the switch is carrying it's signal, so IDK what to think at this point.

 

I am monitoring the correct PID On forscan. But now I'm really confused even more. I took a video yesterday of me looking at the PID on forscan on my head unit and moving the parking brake pedal up and down showing that the PID was saying on and off. I went to record the same video today and now it's not doing it. I will upload the video from yesterday and the new one from today to show what I'm talking about. Apparently wiggling everything around has changed everything. Yesterday's video when the PID was registering where the brake pedal was. Today's video after messing with everything and having the cluster out and the PID is no longer registering anything.

 

On the side note now that I'm messing with the parking brake pedal, my parking brake does not work very well. I replaced the pads on the driver side but the passenger side ones looked almost new in terms of how much wear was on the pads. So I only replaced the driver side. I know how to adjust the parking brake has on either side but, I also know that it is finicky due to the y cable pulling more on one side or the other depending on the adjustments. Only one tire will grab instead of both of them so the brake will only be working on one side. So my question is, is there a write-up on adjusting the parking brake on these trucks maybe in the tech folder? I didn't really see one. Maybe I missed it?

 

None of them do. ****-poor design. A guy can get them to function ok with a bunch of fiddling around but as for actually being effective on an incline? Nope.

 

My solution to that was new shoes, rotors, brake mechanisms, cables, pedal and 4 or so diamonds carved into each of the shoes. The Motorcraft rotors are slightly knurled inside the hat of the rotor, they will go on one of these days and that should help even more.

It works pretty well as it is and will hold the truck and 5th wheel on a slight incline or decline. I always use a gear when stopping and shutting it off. When setting the brake, I apply it, let it settle a second and give it another push.

Cody is right about it being a **** poor design and I adjust them each winter during my off season inspection and maintenance period.

 

I keep a wheel chock in back of truck for of I got camper hooked up and on any kind of incline. Just in case. lol

 

This too!

I forgot to mention the chocks. We carry 6 big yellow and sturdy chocks. This affords us the opportunity to chock 6 out of the 8 tires when towing our 5th wheel, if the need ever arose.

 

I meant to post this video a little while ago but, I do have a brake light fixed now. This video was before that. I went ahead and replaced the little switch down at the pedal. It was $32. Advanced could have got it cheaper which is the store I usually use but it would have took a while to get there of course. I went ahead and got it at O'Reilly's because they had it but that is one of my least favorite places to go because it's so expensive, it's done and anyway here is the video from right before I fixed the light.

 

After installing a new switch I would be out of ideas. You might have had more than one problem at the same time...a flakey switch and maybe a either a bad bulb or loose electrical connection to it perhaps.

And yeah the parking brakes just aren't very good. I've replaced both of the rear cables and the shoes on mine since I've owned it and it's still only so-so holding power. There are people who have replaced everything from the pedal assembly back to the shoes and rotors and still not had great performance. Combine that with electric brake trailers not having parking brakes and you just have to be careful where you park.. A couple of rubber tire chocks are a wise investment.

I'm glad you're happy lol. Mine light still doesn't F-ing work. Gotta love these electrical gremlins on old rigs.