No Brake Lights

[sjjones]

Folks,

I have a 94 Explorer. No brake lights at all. Everything else work including turn signals and flasher. I've changed all the brake light bulbs and just finished replacing the brake light switch on the pedal. Still no brake lights. Any help with the next simplies thing to check would be most appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[1BAD5093]

I had the same prob. I did everything that you did and was in ur shoes. I ended up using an electrical tester and figured out which wire coming from the switch at the pedal sent the electric signal to the brake lights. Then I used a wire tap (that u can buy at any parts store) and tapped into that wire and ran a new wire back to the taillights themselves. U then have to take ur left taillight out and figure out which wire going into it goes to the brake light bulb and tie your new wire into that wire. Then if you only have brake lights on that side you will have to run a jumper wire to the other side. I know this sounds crude, but I checked everything that could affect the brake lights. I spent about 3 days fooling around with mine and there is no way that I would even attempt to take the wire harness apart to try to find a shorted wire. This is an easy fix that should only cost you about $10 at most and should only take about 30 mins. Later and good luck.

 

[sjjones]

Thank you for the quick reply and information. I'm not looking forward to working on the wiring. I understand the fix of stringing some new wire - but I can't imagine rerouting that much wire is a 30 minute job

 

[sjjones]

I completed my meter testing and found that all the wiring is fine. I even checked the new brake pedal switch to make sure it worked.

What I determined is that the brake pedal switch is "not" activating when I press on the brake pedal - no matter how hard I push. I test both the old brake switch and the new one and both work - so the problem with the new one not activating is not my installation; rather some other factor.

I am quite relived to know that it is a mechanical problem and that my wiring is all good. I had to stop messing with it because I've got a severe neck cramp from working in that awkward position. Now - if I can only figure out why pressing the brake pedal doesn't activate the switch )

 

[sjjones]

UPDATE - RESOLVED:

Traced the problem electrically to the brake pedal switch. Installed new switch - didn't work. After many hours of making sure it was installed correctly and doing more wiring checks, decided it may be a problem with the "fit" of the new switch since it tested OK on the meter. The pedal was not depressing the switch enough to reliably trigger on/off.

I didn't know if it was the switch itself or perhaps the push rod from the master cyclinder was worn. I did something I don't normally do - I bought the genuine Ford swtich and installed it. Work perfect now. Done deal.