Brake light wiring question!

[dtkarst]

I re-wired my 66 and have everything upfront done and I amonto the brakes and tails. After spending an hour cleaning the surface rust off from behind the tail light housing on the driver side to get a good ground, I hooked them back up and tried it. The driver side brake light was working and the passenger wasnt keep in mind. So once it was all put back together we tried it out and now i only have the passenger side brake light and no driver side. It flipped sides on me. I took it out and cleaned it some more and still no brake light ont he drivers side. The blinkers and tails work. I have 2 brand new tail lights in it too. Now my question is what do i do now?! I dont think they came from the factory with only one brake like working haha

[PAPA KENT]

Sounds like it could be in your turn signal switch,play with the turn signal switch with the brake pedal depressed with the ignition off and see if the other one works.

[dtkarst]

Well the blinkers work though, could it still have something to do with that?

[Blue Heeler]

I had the same problem, replaced my turn signal switch and now everything works.

[dtkarst]

I will have to try that. And now for another dumb question haha where is that switch located exactly?

[dtkarst]

And it is a 3 on the tree as well if that makes a difference

[FreakyMalo]

If the switch doesn't get centered after a turn, the contacts won't line up and you don't get both brake lights. Try wiggling the lever a little and see if you can find the sweet spot.

[Blue Heeler]

turn signal switch is behind steering wheel. you will need a wheel puller i think you can rent one from autozone or o'reillys auto parts. i paid $40 buck's for mine.

[dtkarst]

Well I decided to take my truck for a spin for fun and it ran great. Didnt go on any main roads due to the fact i am waiting for my turn signal switch to come in. But as i was turning the whole cancel cam switch and signal switch just broke apart and my horn was obnoxiously going off. In a neighborhood. So after i stopped and un plugged the horn i took it back to find the switch basically shattered. So the new parts should be here tomorrow.

[willyp]

Obviously you have a problem with your turn signal switch but this sounds like a ground problem to me. I had a similar problem, with all new wire harness, new steering column and I even sand blasted all the corrosion from the nasty 45 year old housings, those baby’s looked brand new. The brake light problem even switched sides on me. I grounded the tail light buckets 100 different ways and the problem would always reappear after a short time. Had plenty of help from the wife …” baby can you come out and press the brake pedal for me” finally after a couple months of trouble shooting with no luck I used a skinny .20 piece of safety wire that would barely fit between the housing and the bulb that I grounded to the frame and when I touched the metal part of the bulb while the wife pushed on the brake pedal……shazam! It was all good! My assessment is that the housing and the actual part that holds the bulb are pressed together and are 2 dissimilar metals and even thought I sand blasted the housing corrosition was in between the 2 different metals. What I ended up doing was drilling a small hole where the socket holds the metal part of the bulb then soldered my ground wire so it actually touches the metal part of the bulb when the bulb is installed, then grounded it to the frame. Work greats lasts long time and no issues since this fix. So if you get your new turn signal switch installed and you still have the brake light problem try this. This picture is after I sand blasted the housings, note the copper color metal where the housing holds the bulb that is pressed into the gray color housing.

Good luck!

[dtkarst]

Thanks for the advice. I have been cleaning the back tail light buckets of rust adn whatnot but i wasnt for sure if they were strong enough to be blasted and you answered that question for me haha. I will probably end up doing that just to prevent and further issues. One if brand new and its not working so we will see if the new switch helps. If not, its time for major cleaning and ground work and hopefully that will work! One question would be is if there was any certain place to ground to on the frame or not? i figured just kind of anywhere but im not sure. Thanks for the post!

[FreakyMalo]

Flat white inside the buckets will make your tail lights a little brighter.

[kieth]

Originally Posted by dtkarst

I re-wired my 66 and have everything upfront done and I amonto the brakes and tails. After spending an hour cleaning the surface rust off from behind the tail light housing on the driver side to get a good ground, I hooked them back up and tried it. The driver side brake light was working and the passenger wasnt keep in mind. So once it was all put back together we tried it out and now i only have the passenger side brake light and no driver side. It flipped sides on me. I took it out and cleaned it some more and still no brake light ont he drivers side. The blinkers and tails work. I have 2 brand new tail lights in it too. Now my question is what do i do now?! I dont think they came from the factory with only one brake like working haha

I cleaned up all the light housings, then soldered a ground wire to the housing of each bulb, ran all the wiring together in loom and then attached the ground wires to a rear grounding block. You cannot believe the difference in how bright the lights are........Kieth