Good Morning FTE Freinds,

This morning I have a simple yet baffling question - to me...

Yesterday, the family and I went for our real 1st drive since the build. Drove it from home to Lancaster, CA approximately 175 miles one way. That is considerably a lot more than just going for Chemo treatments... and "She" did lovely, even going up and down the "grapevine". Just want all to know that I refuse Cancer and Love My Truck (one of my top ten reasons for kicking Cancer Butt!)

Okay... the brake lights

Every light (well almost) on the truck functions properly except the brake lights.

A kind officer pulled me over and says in his authoritative voice "Looks like you've invested a lot of money in this truck however, your brake lights aren't functioning." Makes me wonder if he thought I'd ran out of money and couldn't afford bulbs... Silly Officer.

Anyway, I have removed and replaced:
1. The blessed bulbs
2. The brake light switch which lives under there (ya'll know)
3. Reviewed the fuse panel - all present fuses are good

However, today I will contact EZ-Wiring to ensure all fuses are placed correctly on the panel with there proper resistance etc... Sometimes it's difficult to see exactly where the heck I pulled the dang thing from.

I have noticed that every now and then my headlights will go out while driving at night. Sometimes it's a bit surprisingly unpleasant, but I'm getting the hang of driving with no lights... (not funny).

So I pull on the headlight switch, turn it this way then that way and after jiggling it a bit they will eventually come back on. However, I don't like that.

So today I will look at that as well.

One final thing before I get to work on the truck...
I have discovered an oil leak which appears to come from the rear of the intake manifold. I have reviewed a few YT videos on the subject matter and it appears that this is probably a task I can handle on my own.
Am I kidding myself?

Do you believe my brake lights won't come on because of the headlight switch being all jiggly?it may have to do something with the headlamp switch?

Sorry, rushing thru this post so I can get Sebastian ready for school so I can get to work on my truck.

Kindly,

Paul

 

Paul - First- keep fighting, you know everyone on here is praying for you.
Check all your grounds. My right rear tail light on the beast needs to be checked about every trhee months (mine is still 6 volt pos gorund). That may be the same for your headlights if the switch touching the dash is a ground. Just a SWAG on my part -- the guys that really know will chime in soon, I;m sure. Good luck.

 

Hey Paul, try checking the continuity of the brake light switch if possible. New or not, it might not work.

I know it is a very broad piece of advice and is a lot of work to check, but I'd go over your grounds as well, good idea from Dave.

I really love that your driving your truck so much. Keep drivin', keep fightin'!

 

Keep up the good fight!

I had the same problem with my brake lights. I checked the switch for continuity and it tested okay. I bought a new one; worked for a while, then same problem. They offer a low pressure hydraulic switch but they are pricey; there are many stories of people having problems with hydraulic brake switches.

I put in a manual switch and it worked for a while. I called Painless; sometimes the brake light wiring runs through the steering column if you use an aftermarket unit. For me, there was a short in the steering column so I tapped into the brake line wire and directly wired it to the switch.

Wiring issues are no fun. Good luck.

 

Hey Paul,
We had all sorts of problems with our lights when we were
using LED bulbs. They didn't work often in the standard set up.
I'm not sure the reason why.


Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

I had to run a separate ground wire from the bucket to the frame - had the most trouble with the passenger side (even farther from the source). Additional grounds fixed mine. Good luck!

 

Bad grounds are usually the culprit with lights but since tail lights work I doubt that's your problem. I'd look for a broken wire somewhere between the brake light switch and the tail light. Might have gotten cut or pinched by something...

 

Check continuity across the brake switch terminals with the brake applied. I just went through this problem with my truck this past weekend. It turned out to be a bad hydraulic switch. It worked great when I first installed all my wiring and switches. I'm a little surprised that it failed in such a short period. I rewired and installed a mechanical switch and good to go again.

In talking to some friends, I'm finding that they all have had problems with hydraulic switches. Lack of quality in today's products?????????

 

Keep fighting!!
Not sure what system you have 6v or 12 v? Do you have a digital volt meter? There are cheap ones out there that will do what you need it to. Set it on DC volts, ground one side and follow the brake wire from one end or the other while some one is holding the brake pedal down. Maybe use a stick pin to pierce the wire. Hopefully you can use process of elimination to find the problem. Good luck and let us know how you turned out.

 

Good morning Paul, I agree with Drew as a starting point. If you have power going in the brake switch, but not coming out while the pedal is depressed well like Drew said, bad switch. When I was working on mine I put a mirror behind the truck so I could see if the lites were working at a glance, beats getting up every time to check. Blessings my friend.

 

Paul,
I salute you and your attitude on your fight with the big C. My wife is fighting C as well.

I'm not familiar with your brake set up but I'd would like to know how others are installing a mechanical switch on a aftermarket under the cab pedal.

 

The mechanical brake switch has an arm that must move down in tandem with the brake pedal. The switch I purchased has an extension perpendicular to the brake switch arm. This extension is placed on the brake pedal arm which then moves the switch lever to activate the switch.

I mounted the mechanical switch near the brake pedal arm under the floor pan. I had to drill through the angled portion of the floor pan to do this. Without a lift it was a PIA to do.

 

Not 100% sure of your wiring diagram, but the 56 here i have intermittent issues with one brake light not operating...left one

have traced it to the turn signal switch under the steering wheel.
I can give it a 'wiggle' and the left light will work.

Now to pull the wheel and investigate... when the temps come down....

 

1 Jumper across the brake switch and see if the brake lights come on.
2 If brake lights come on, replace or adjust switch.
3 If brake lights do not come on, troubleshoot circuit to the lights.

 

If you determine it is the brake light switch (most are set too heavy for our old systems).

My solution was buying a switch for a '91 Harley Davidson that uses the 1/8" pipe fitting and same electrical connections. Lighter pressure required and very dependable. More $$ but I figured it was worth it. fwiw