Club Cobra - Brake lights out

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Brake lights out

I know this issue has been posted before but..... while driving away from my home on saturday, a neighbor was following me and informed me my brake light were INOP. I knew this was an issue with BDR's because of this forum. I pulled the wires off the hydraulic pressure switch, shorted them together and LAB the brake lights worked. Bad pressure switch. I found a couple of snap-action micro-switches in my parts scrounge which actually were intended for A-10 aircraft. One of them was an open/depressed type so I decided to convert the light system to a pedal actuated switch system. Made a simple aluminum "L" bracket which I bolted to the top of the foot box, mounted the switch on the bracket so when the pedal is not depressed, it actuates the switch, re-routed the wires and bingo, simple, reliable fix. Another cool feature is that when the car is not running, a light touch of the pedal produces an audible "click" from the switch which is at least some indication that everything is ok before driving the car. I suggest that anyone who is still using the hydraulic switch set-up check their brake lights every time you drive your car. Luckily my neighbor let me know about mine as opposed to a cop with a repair ticket or worse a semi plowing up my A**.

Cheers,
Chuck

Alternate Brake Light Switch

Sounds Good,

Hope that switch doens't loose it's cool if it sees a Tank tho....

I got a ticket for this. Switch to the LEDs. No problem now!

Sid

Chuck,

Do you have a pics of how you made i work?

Yes I have pics. I'll post them this weekend.

Chuck

Who sells rectangular LED tail/brake lites?

The heat shield we sell does a good job of letting that switch survive. FYI the factory tried the manual switch like you made sometime ago and it was more troublesome.

Chuck,

The same thing happened to me and I corrected it the same way. The advantage of the mechanical switch is that it comes on sooner. If it's adjusted right, the second you touch the pedal, it's on.

The drawbacks are:
1. Sometimes the pedal gets stuck on the carpet and doesn't return to it's fully upright position, leaving the lights on. This happens to me when I park the car. I am going to put an extra spring on the brake arm to ensure it's full return.
2. The mechanical switches sometimes move around due to vibration and quit working.
3. These switches don't handle a lot of current (maybe yours does). Two 21 watt filiments put quite a strain on the switch. You usually need a relay to take the load off. That's probably why your hydraulic switch failed.

My thought is that the best solution is to have both switches and have them activate the same relay. This will guarantee operation of the lights.

Paul

I agree about wiring the 2 switches in parallel. Redundancy in safety related items is always good. My switch is rated at 20 amps. Should handle the load.

Chuck

Hello,

Lost my brake lights last weekend. Replaced the switch (NAPA SL147) and they work fine again. Repair took all of 5 minutes.

I puchased an extra switch as a spare for when this one blows.

Thanks to Jay for the steer in the right direction.

Mike

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgiannetto

Will try this tomorrow, noticed my brakes lights were inop tonight, I think a cop did to, he turned around as I was going into my neighborhood, tried to catch up to me and just I pulled into the garage he passed my driveway, then turned right around and went back the way he came.