Hey guys I have an 88 bronco. Anyhow the brakelight on one side is out. I have power coming in on the wire for the blinker so I know the wire is good from the blinker to the plug at the light. The opposite side works fine.

At this point I'm assuming that the problem is in the wire ahead of the blinker between the brake switch and the splice. So my question is does anyone know where the switch is located and does anyone know where the splice is?

If you think I'm off track please let me know.

Thanks

Mike

 

if you have a chiltons manual they should have a diagram. i dont know if the brake light switch is behind the brake pedal for you or not but i would start tracing there. did it just go out magically one day? i went through the car wash and my left rear brake light didn't work at all. i went through the car wash a couple weeks later and it started working again. try replacing every light bulb back there first to be sure. you might even be able to find the schematics online somewhere.

 

Got a manual didn't see anything definitive about placement. Anyone know specifically where and what the wire colors are.

Thanks

mike

 

Depends upon which side you are dealing with. Wire colors differ so you can tell whether you have the wiring from the left or right side of the truck.

The driver's side stop, turn, tail lamp is fed by the power feed from the main light switch for the taillight filament AND the power from the left turn/hazzard portion of the turn signal/hazzard switch. The taillight power feed is BROWN for both sides fo the truck. The turn signal/hazzard feed is LT. GREEN/ORANGE. The BLACK wire is naturally the negative or "ground" and is the same for both sides of the truck.

The passenger side is the same EXCEPT that the turn signal/hazzard filament is an ORANGE/LT. BLUE wire to differentiate from the driver's side wiring.

The wires for the turn signal filaments run back to the turn signal/hazzard switch where they are fed individually by the turn signal portion of the switch and jointly by the hazzard portion of the switch. The stop switch draws its power from the LT. GREEN/RED wire from Fuse #1 and when activated it sends power via a LT. GREEN wire to the central contact in the turn signal/hazzard switch.

The turn signal/hazzard switch is most likely buried in the column somewhere the brake switch is mounted to the pedal assembly up under the dash.

If the problem is the brakelight filament, check to see if it works when the hazzard flasher or the corresponding turn signal is activated. If it does NOT the problem is more likely to be a problem in the wiring between the switch and the taillight assembly. If the tailight filament works (dimmer filament) but the stop/turn filament does not, you can eliminate a bad ground concern since BOTH filaments utilize the same ground. However if neither filament works the ground is suspect.

 

Thanks Greystreak.

The problem is drivers side. The tail light functions. The blinker functions. I don't recall about the hazards right now. So I guess my next questions is where does the power feed split?

On a separate but related topic. There are several connectors at the rear of the truck. They are odd looking for automotive to me. I think there are three of them. They "look like" (thought I know they are not) ungrounded AC electrical outlets. Any help on these would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

 

The power feed splits inside the turn signal/hazzard switch assembly in the column.

 

So I haven't really looked for the problem, but I haven't found it either. I'm going to look now, and just figured I'd see if I got any other responses.

So what color is the feed to the drivers side brake filament.

And do you know about the plugs?

Thanks as always Greystreak

Mike

 

Does your 88 have the trailer lights plugin? If it does it might be easier to trace from there. If it still has power for the driverside brake lamp it would tell you alot about where the open is in the circuit. You could even tap into it to fix the brake lamp circuit without having to go through so much wiring.