AcIdBuRn02ZTS
Full Access Member
I think (and hope) that I fixed my brake light issue finally. I had rewired the rear of the truck due to janky bs... Still had a slight issue where at random, the brake lights would go out unless I was firm on the pedal. If I lightly touched the pedal to just slow slightly in traffic or something, the lights would come on but go right back out (just flicker on). I figured it was the switch so I went on and bought one since it was only $9.
Went to change it and found more janky wiring. Had time so I started cutting and deleting.
Here is the brake light switch harness...
The factory battery hot wire from the harness was cut under the dash and left in the harness (found it because it started sparking when I was moving the wiring around). For some reason, they had cut the original power wire and ran that yellow wire to the fuse block instead. They had that wire daisy chained between 2 30 amp fuses in the box and then to the brake light switch.
Based on the melted wiring at the switch, I assume that the crap wiring I had cut out of the back of the truck was at some point shorting out (imagine that) and instead of tracing down the short, they spliced into the switch with 12awg wire and 2 power sources so it wouldnt pop any fuses... just cook the wiring instead. It was getting hot enough to start melting the coating off of the 12awg wire too and there are burnt places in the fuse block where the wiring was jammed in.
I cut all that crap out.. cut back as far as I could and I think I got most of the melted wire cut out.. then spliced in new wiring down to the switch and used female spade terminals on the switch itself instead of the burnt plug.
I'm amazed it didn't burn the truck to the ground. So far in the driveway, no more flickering lights. We'll see in the morning on the drive to work.
Went to change it and found more janky wiring. Had time so I started cutting and deleting.
Here is the brake light switch harness...
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The factory battery hot wire from the harness was cut under the dash and left in the harness (found it because it started sparking when I was moving the wiring around). For some reason, they had cut the original power wire and ran that yellow wire to the fuse block instead. They had that wire daisy chained between 2 30 amp fuses in the box and then to the brake light switch.
Based on the melted wiring at the switch, I assume that the crap wiring I had cut out of the back of the truck was at some point shorting out (imagine that) and instead of tracing down the short, they spliced into the switch with 12awg wire and 2 power sources so it wouldnt pop any fuses... just cook the wiring instead. It was getting hot enough to start melting the coating off of the 12awg wire too and there are burnt places in the fuse block where the wiring was jammed in.
I cut all that crap out.. cut back as far as I could and I think I got most of the melted wire cut out.. then spliced in new wiring down to the switch and used female spade terminals on the switch itself instead of the burnt plug.
I'm amazed it didn't burn the truck to the ground. So far in the driveway, no more flickering lights. We'll see in the morning on the drive to work.
