I have accidentally disabled my brake lights, and cannot see how to get them working again. There is a pig tail on the brake light switch with a white wire, which is no longer plugged into anything. I am sure I unplugged it somehow, but do not know where its mate is, or what I am looking for in wire color. I also do not know how this functions so I can run a new wire if needed.

I looked in the FSM manual, but it did not clear things up at all. If anything it raised more questions than answers. If there is a section on how it functions I could not find it. I found the part about changing a light, and diagnosing problems with the flashers, but could not find the brake light trouble shooting part.

I assume the pig tail is supposed to go to ground, because it looks like that is what the brake light switch does, but I really need someone to guide me here. I do not wish to create a massive short circuit intentionally and burn the dash harness up. There are two other wires that feed back from the brake light pigtail connector to the body harness connector,and obviously this is either +12 or ground, but until I can clear that up, I do not know how to proceed. Thanks for any guidance you can give me. I do not want to drive the car again until I get this worked out. I have been driving it this way from awhile, and was shocked when someone told me the brake lights don't work.

Thanks for any help you can offer. Sam

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Here is how my 67 is wired.


White wire: one end with single plastic shield plugs on one of two blades (pink wire is other blade) at Brake Light Switch; the other end is landed on and paired with a second white wire at terminal #6 of the 10 wire directional signal's harness connector.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

As stated, there are two blade terminals on the brake light switch. One is at the end on the switch- opposite end from the "plunger" at the pedal arm. The other terminal is closer to the mounting bracket- & sticks out 90*. It's often difficult to see this one from under the dash because it can be pointed in some odd direction.

Either wire (pink or white) can go to either terminal.

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63 Valiant Wagon
225 - 4 bbl

Thanks guys. The pink and white wire appear to both come out of the same end of the connector that plugs into the rear of the switch. From what wagons has said, the pink one must be connected to another spade plug up there. The pink one goes to the body connector. The white one is just dangling with a spade connector available to connect to something. My '69 FSM shows this going to number six on the connector Bill has referenced,but am not sure which piece of hardware under the dash this represents. I will not have time to get back to this before Tuesday evening, but appreciate the guidance. Does the switch supply a ground or +12?

Sam

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IIRC the pink is your 12+ feed which goes through the switch to give 12+ up to the indicator switch. So +12 is what the switch supplies.

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Mattelderca
78 NYB (gone now), two S series, three old Snow Cruisers and a Doo.

Thanks again for the replies. I have only looked briefly at the car yesterday morning before leaving for work. I have studied the manual, but the FSM really confuses me. I have colored some of the wires on the page with markers, but unfortunately one of the wires I am tracking is white, which I cannot mark. I have tried to get a global concept of this wiring, but they have played too many games with the circuit for me to grasp where the 12v lead gets its power. The pink wire goes to the flasher, which must be ganged with a hot lead on that side.

The white switch wire goes to the body harness plug number 7 on my diagram. At least that gives me something to search for. However on the body page of the manual the green wire which feeds the brake lights appears to come out of the side of the connector opposite the one the white goes into, based on the small bump on the side of the plug.

I guess since they worked once I do not have to worry about that. All I have to do is make sure the green wire coming out of the body side of the plug mates with where this white wire goes in on the dash side.

Sam

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Sam, do you have a test light?

All the switch does is connect two wires to complete the circuit and activate the lights. No different than the switch on the wall in your house.

If you're not sure if that wire is supposed to go on the switch, connect it through the test light, which will provide a load in the circuit so you won't be creating an 'unintentional' short.

If you connect it to the switch, you can step on the pedal and the test light will come on along with the brake lights. Or you can connect it to the other wires directly, bypassing the switch. Either way should be a safe test.

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O==\=/==O

"A mechanic is Somebody."
- Jim Preston

Got it figured out. I was misinterpreting the wires next to the switch. What I thought was a white wire coming out of the switch is a white wire that needs to be plugged into the switch. It is hard to see under there, especially for an old stiff guy like myself. No more hanging upside down in the seat with my head under the dash.

I think the brake lights were on all the time, and I was out of adjustment on the sliding switch, so some time back, while the tranny swap was in process I simply unplugged it, planning to go back and engineer a fix. Now it is time to do that.

Thanks to all for thinking about this and offering advice, all if it helpful.

Sam

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Glad it was simple. Underdash stuff is no fun.

Anytime I need to spend any significant time under a dash, I take the front seat out so I can lay flat on the floor. A few minutes with a wrench keeps the wrench out of your back!

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O==\=/==O

"A mechanic is Somebody."
- Jim Preston

Good advice about taking the seats out. Applying a fix was not straightforward. The pink wire appeared to be dead. However the fuse looked good. I ran continuity checks on everything, and discovered the fuse was intermittantly bad, and when I pulled it out of the box it came apart. All I had to replace the bad 20 was a 25. I hope I don't burn the car down (up?). Of course I had the battery disconnected for all of this. There are a number of live +12 wires under there.

I fixed the switch/brake pedal alignment issues with a five pound sledge and a large drift pin. Now the left brake light works, but not the right one. That seems like a step in the right direction. I replaced the right hand 1157 with another 1157 and it still does not work. The ground is good because the tail light on the same bulb is fine. I will check continuity of the wire between the two brake lights. If that is OK, I will go get another bulb. Someone posted awhile back a replacement number for 1157. I think maybe it was Dan. Does anybody remember what that newer number is?

As a piece of advice, I took colored markers and marked the colors in on the FSM wiring diagram. That was an enormous help. The logic becomes much clearer when you can see the color groupings. Does anybody know what the numbers are in front of the wire size and color designation? For instance, X12-18R is the power lead to the radio connector. What does the X12 stand for?

Thanks again for the guidance here.

Sam

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I was thinking initially it might be the fuse, but thought you would check that... Could it be that the turn signal lever is just pushed to the right and that is why your rt brk lt is not working?

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I'll check it out. Won't be back at it until Friday. At least I can drive it now. My old 37 Ford had only a left turn tail light, and no turn signals. I suspect a policeman might still issue a repair order if he saw the right one not working. Thanks.

Sam

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