OK, my brake lights went out yesterday (74 2-door). This hilarious car full of old women waved and gestured that to me. Last night I replaced all the fuses on the panel (hey they're 30 years old, why not?) Only AFTER I did that (THANK GOD I have small hands and a flood light) did I notice in the manual that it read under Stop & Headlights--- Fuse location: Integral with the Lights. Ok I understand the word "Intergral" and the word "Lights" and yet I don't see any Relays near them, nor were they apparent on the back of the fuse panel near the firewall. Anybody know where these are?
Thx mucho. already checked the bulbs, must be the switch. So under Fuse Type in the manual it reads "15 V C.B." i'm going to assume that has something to do with the bulb type....? Thanks again for your help.
Good thing you have small hands. Your going to need them when you change that brake light switch. It's a royal pain in the a$$. Pay very close attention to how it's on there and how it comes off as your takeing it off. I still don't understand how the switch actually works. All I know is I got mine back on and the brake lights worked when I was done.
The circuit breakers for the for all external lights are built into the headlight switch. They can get weak after awhile and not hold current. But if that's the problem the lights will blink off and on as the breaker cools and heats up again. When I installed my Shelby tail lights (6 brake lights instead of 2) it caused the light switch to overheat. I ended up taking apart the switch, hardwiring the breakers and installing external circuit breakers and heavier wiring.
Well I took the brake switch off yesterday. It was gooey. I cleaned it & tested it. It is moving the current but somehow the spring part isn't depressing when I press the brake. It was very hard to get it to spring even with a wedge. So it looks like I am giong to have to replace it. Awesome. *ps. for those who will need to know one day, a paperclip works fine if you lose the pin.
I'll buy that. I was wondering what you was thinking. There are 2 circuit breakers in the headlight switch, one for the headlights and one for the rest of the lights.
I did not know that. I learned my "something new today" In 30 years of working on these cars, I have never seen a bad breaker. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I just never ran into it.
I've never seen a bad one but when I added grill lights and the impala tail lights, I over loaded the circuit and my lights would start blinking on & off after about 40 minutes of running. I could never figure out why until I got ahold of a wiring diagram & saw the cb's in the switch. Moved the grill lights to a relay & solved the problem. Probably about the same thing Barry went through.
On my station wagon I have the blue simulated HEI bulbs (or whatever they are called). I only have them for the headlites...not the inside "hi-beams"...they are still the standard "yellow" headlights from the 70's. Anyways...I can run the HEI all night long. As soon as I flip on the brights...about a minute later the lights start flickering because the circuit breaker is tripping. Turn the low beams back on and all is fine. The first time this happened really freaked me out.
