No brake lights

it's my turn.....I searched our achieves and found it's most likely the turn signal switch on my 70 Coronet causing my no brake light condition. My question is has anyone had any good luck with the aftermarket switches? I hear a lot of "they're crap" stories.

Do yourself a favor and search e-bay for an original.
Ron

I went through that with a pal's Superbird and it was a failure inside the hazard area of the turn signal switch.

The good news is that you can test any possible replacement just by unplugging the old harness under the dash, then plug in the replacement to test it.

That way if the replacement is bad, you did not take your column apart for no reason.

Yes!

Before you go disassembling the dash does your car have a separate hazard flasher? My Challenger has one under the right side of the dash in addition to the one at the fuze box.. Mine under the dash below the ashtray went out and took my brake lights with it, replaced it and brake lights came back simple as that.

After checking the fuses I think I would start by checking to see if there is power to the brake light switch and power through the brake light switch. The power passes through the brake light switch before it goes to the turn signal switch. Gene

what Gene said then I would jump fire to the brake light switch terminal & with the stalk in neutral see if the brake lights are on then try it with the stalk up then with the stalk down

Thanks everyone! I have checked the fuses and tried another switch at the pedal. any suggestions on where to grab power to bypass the switch? sorry if that sounds simple but I dislike working under the dash. I don't know how you big boys do it.







I tried another flasher but I found a three pronged piece, I have no idea what that is. The emergency flasher I found was close to the Ebrake pedal the second three pronger was right of the column.

The flasher's have nothing to do with the brake lights working. Do you have power at the brake light switch? When activating the brake switch do you have power going out of the switch. Two simple tests you need to verify.

the brake light switch only has two wires.
one is power in, and the other gets that power [out] when the pedal is depressed, completing the circuit.
a very easy and necessary test to do before delving into the turn signal switch.
please keep us updated on your progress.

Pink AT BRAKE PEDAL SWITCH is constant hot, white is output to turning switch which is NC with dark green and brown wires running to tail lights ( one on each side ) while TS is in rest position.

That's the full circuit.

seperate the TS harness. see if the white wire in the body half of the connector is hot with the brake pedal depressed. jump 12V to the 2 wires Nacho mentioned in the same body half of the connector & see of the brakes lights light up

It may also sound pretty dumb, but I've seen times when both brake light bulbs were bad. It sucks to go through a bunch of testing just to find out the bulbs were bad. Been there, done that. Its the simple stuff that trips us up sometimes. Gene

Actually wouldn't need to disconect the plug, it can be made with plug conected and jump them out from back of conector with a small wire.

Once it happened to me the white wire on TS plug was broken down the wire cover, but TS itself was still good.

About the replacement TS available... several brands but to me all are made by the same manufacturer. They get all same wiring color codes ( way diff from the original ones ) and same yellow canceling cam. Is about luck, some came out from factory better than others. A friend of mine got one with couple of wires swapped out at turning switch riveted terminals. He had to cut and splice correctly those to make it work as it must ( or swap them out at plug ). It took us around 20 minutes to find the reason why it wasn't working good untill decide to track wire by wire from an original one and comparing with the replacement piece. Then also compare with other replacement TS pics on the web which confirmed that. A factory assembly mistake. Sure these chinesium pieces won't last long the same than originals NOS, but for the price of NOS one you can get 3 or 4 of the chinesium pieces, AND usually now our cars are not driven like before so they can hold the new use for a decent time. SO if you don't get the chance to get a NOS one, the chinesium replacements are still a "decent "option.

Used ones are a good option, BUT is also a random luck, unless you certainly now the use or abuse of those units... would be great to get them from a JY car with speedo still there and low mileage.

One way to certify the low use of used ones is the horn ring contact roller conditions. Is not weird the roller getting stuck and beginning to get flat out by the horn ring friction down the steering wheel.

Later Mopar replacements ( incorrectly being sold as NOS ) and chinesium replacements are not anymore with the roller stud, but a flat stud... still spring loaded thought.

ON A SIDE NOTE:

If the test shows/confirms a damaged TS A canceling cam replacement ( which is also available and cheaper ) could make the fix job! And wouldn't need to replace the full switch. The canceling cam section is which carries the brakes contacts same as turnings of course. So would worth the try.

Thanks everyone, seems like I have a fighting chance on narrowing it down over the next dew days.

that makes no sense. Hazzard and brakes circuit runs through diff routes up to TS. Hazzard runs through a pink wire at TS plug, while brakes runs through the white wire ( and turning flasher on the red wire ). Is true tipically both ( brakes and Hazzard flasher ) share same fuse, but they still runs on diff routes between fuse and TS.

then at TS they share part of the wiring to feed rears high intensity filaments.

So if fuse went out, both will be lost, but if Hazzard flasher gets damaged, brakes will still work.

If rear wiring section ( dark green and brown ) &/or bulbs fail, will loose both too. Or either just one side or the other.

IF you turn on hazzards &/or turning switch to both sides and high intensity light works ( not parking ), wiring and bulbs are good. So will point out to a TS ( or candeling cam ) failure or brake pedal switch failure.

you can jump out the pedal switch between red and white wires... that will keep on the brakes if TS and rest of circutery is good... and pink wire is hot of course.




Stock blinker flashers are just 2 prongs both ends handling positive, one is input the other one is output. They get heat by the load caused by the bulbs power going throught when activating switches making the bimetallic to break out the points inside, cut the power untill cools off and close points again. Than makes the blinking work again and again... heat and cool, heat and cool.

There are two kind of these flashers, one to handle turnings able to handle 3-4 bulbs, and hazzards able to handle up to 6-8 bubs and called heavy duty. Usually labeled with a green band. Factory ones were squared.

There is a 3 prongs flasher, about the size and shape of a wine bottle cork seal, but that's for the ign switch light courtesy light ( and some years also for seatbelt warning light, usually 70s and 71s ), but has nothing to do with hazzards or brakes.

Hey Dave. Time to update your avatar.