C-1 Tail / Stop Lights

[Tom Bryant]

Right you are Bob. It sure acts like a bad ground. It just doesn't make much sense why the brake/turn light won't work with the lights on.

 

[Bwmurph]

Tom / Bob / Stemmer,

OK, this is just too weird now. And another reason why I hate electrical problems.

I disconnected the orange and white wire from the stop light switch and jumpered the two terminals on the switch with a paper clip. Had no brake lights at all - not with the headlights on and not with the headlights off.

Undid my jumper and hooked the orange and white wires back to where they came from and - VIOLA - everything works the way it should. I did not try turn signals but both brake lights work with headlights on or off. I should also note that all of these tests tonight were done with the car NOT runnning (so I'm probalby running down my battery and it won't start tomorrow).

I'm still leaning toward a bad brake light switch and will likely order one tomorrow. But who knows, I may get up tomorrow morning, try it out and I'll have the same problem.

ANother thing I should mention, after reading Tom's post about where these orange and white wires go is that I recently installed courtesy light switches in the door jambs. This shouldn't ahve anything to do with it should it ? ?

Thanks for all your help and I'll let you know if things change tomorrow. My luck it will revert back to the one brake light scenario when I'm at the Motor Vehicle Inspection lanes.

Thanks again for everbody's input and time,

Bernie O.

 

[Tom Bryant]

I'm with you on the electricity driving me nuts.You must have the magic touch. If it was a bad connection at the switch then why would either brake light work? I hope your problem is fixed. The courtesy light should not have effected the brake light situation. It just simply draws it's power from the orange wire and comes on when it's grounded through one of the door switches or the light switch when the knob is turned.

Good luck at the instection station. My next suggestion was for you to move out here in flyover country where we don't have vehicle inspections.

Tom

 

[Bwmurph]

Tom,

Yeah, I hope it's fixed but anything (particularly electrical) that comes and goes like that and that I didn't really DO anything to "fix" it will likely return at some poiint.

The inspections here in DE aren't really too bad, although they did double the fees from US$ 20/year to US$ 40/year. If you time it right and don't go at the middle or end of the month when they all come due you can actually get in and out of there pretty quickly. And it gives me a reason to go over the basic safety items on the car. The only thing they really check here is lights, wipers, brakes (not parking brake), and emissions. If I wasn't going over these things I would have never known I had a problem with the brake lights. So I guess it's a good thing.

It's raining here today so I'm going to run it over to Motor Vehicle tomorrow; I'll let you know how I make out.

I'm still going to order a stop light switch; I have some other things I need for the '71 as well so you'll probably be hearing from me again when I get into that whole electrical mess (radio, speakers, fan switch, heat/ac controller, and fiber optics)

Thanks again for everyone's help,

Bernie O.

 

[Bwmurph]

Well I took it to the inspection lanes today - it failed.

I checked everythign befoer I left - both brake lights are working with or without the headlights on. Get over to the inspection lanes and it has NO brake lights at all. I jiggle the wires at the stop light switch and they come on, but the man says they are not working properly (I can't really disagree with him) and it fails.

Everything else is good, so I jsut have to go back to get the brake lights checked.

I'm 99% positve it's the brake light switch and one is on order. I'll update when I get the new switch installed and take it back to the inspection lanes.

Bernie O.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Bummer. It's not a loose contact in the plug?

 

[Bwmurph]

It's possible its a loose contact in the plug, but it sure seems to be the switch. When I wiggle the wires, sometimes both lights go out and sometimes only one. The switch is only US$ 9.00, and I needed a few other things as well, so if that doesn't fix it I wil then look harder at the wires and plugs.

Thanks for your help and I'll let you know what happens when I get the parts.

Bernie O.

 

[Bwmurph]

OK, now I'm really frustrated. Got the new brake light switch in (from the looks of it I probably could have gotten at the local parts store), installed and tested the lights. Everything worked fine. Took a ride, got it back home, everything worked fine.

Took it over to the inspection lanes today and it FAILED ! Left (Driver side) brake light goes out when the headlights are on. I quick ran it over to a local mechanic I know who works on a lot of older cars and it says it may be a bad/loose/corroded connection at the fuse block. So I pop out the stop light fuse and it does show some corrosion on the ends of the fuse. I sand it with some emory cloth, pop it back in , but no change.

I'm gong to get it home after work and maybe pull the fuse block off the firewall to see what it looks like on back side. Anything I should be aware or be careful about here (other than, of course, disconnecting the battery)?

Any other suggestions you guys have would be greatly appreciated.

Bernie O.