Howto: fix brake lights to come on sooner

TbirdSCFan

Registered User
I'm posting this in the general tech forum because I think it could be a safety issue.

The brake lights (aka stop lamps) on many SCs have a tendency to not come on until the pedal is depressed a long way down. Sometimes as much as 1/2 way. :eek:

In normal operation, as the brake pedal is pushed, the brake cylinder actuator rod puts force on the stop lamp switch's front plate. As the rod continues to be depressed, the plate is pushed futher and further back against a roller pin until the pin engages the switch and the brake lights come on. :)

What happens over time is the front plate gets flattened out so that the lever must be pushed further and further to get the pin depressed.

There are a couple of fixes for this, and believe it or not, a new switch may not fix it :eek:

The first fix is to remove the stop lamp switch and carefully bend the front plate forwards, on both sides, into a slight curve. When the "T" tabs reach the edge, that should be about correct. This is a distance of about 1/8" forward from where they are usually found with a worn switch.

The second fix is to preload the spring with some sort of shim between the actuator rod and the switch plate. I don't know the thickness but something 1/16" thick should be a good starting point.

This should provide some help in heavy traffic. :cool:
 
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