Brake/Tail Light Problem

I bought a 85 Old's Cutlass a few months ago, the guy I got it from somehow rigged up a wire that ran from the brake switch on the brake pedal to the tail lights because on of the wires running from the switch has somehow been cut and I guess lost as I cannot find the severed piece anywhere under the dash.

The wire that runs from under the dash connects to the wires running into the tail lights in the trunk, all the wires at that point have been cut and respliced, I guess when they where trying to figure out which one to connect to.

The setup seems to work ok, but not entirely correct. When you apply the brake, the lights barely brighten any if like at night and all the lights are on, you can barely tell that the brake has been applied at all, in day time you can see clearly though. Also when you apply the brake, the dash lights come on, as well as the front parking lights, the high stop light is on at all times if the lights are on, not just when you apply the brake.

There is 5 wires that I could splice into to get the brake lights to work, I have tried them all with mixed levels of success, but in the end, no sure way that they work correctly.

Am I screwed? Can I the layman rewire the car? I'm not an idiot when it comes to these things but no genius either, I'm sure that I could rewire that system if I absolutely have to. But is there any other way? Somewhere I could take it? What would be the level of difficulty in trying to rewire it?

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated thanks.

I also wanted to say that I have visited this site quite a few times over the past years, and although this is my first post I have recieved tons of help and info. So thanks to everyone that makes this place what it is.

Well after working on it till 3 in the am I decided to just run the wire that had been connected to the brake switch-tail lights, from the brake switch to the third brake light instead so now I have no brake lights at the tail light, but the third one in the window works.

My question is of the legality of that, since the other brake lights arent working could/should I be driving? I don't see why not, since i do still have a working brake lights. Any opinions?

it's illegal.

Well thanks lol, guess I'm right back where I started...

I've found a few threads here and elsewhere where people had the same problem but either their fixes do not apply here or they never said if/what did fix it. But I'll keep reading, may just find something.

Locc try this.
(these are two very simple curcuits)grab a pen and paper and draw this across the page.
firstly,wire into brake pedal switch,brake pedal switch,wire out of switch to the rear brake light
directly beneath that draw across the page.
wire into park light switch,park light switch,wire out of switch to the rear tail lights.
now if you draw a line down the cetre of the page connecting the two pictures together,there's your fault.
take this info to the car and compare the vehicles wiring,and you will find that the brake light wire has been joined to the tail light wire and back feeding to the dash and front parkers
if you get stuck,just reply

Little confused by your post, but I think I get your general idea...


There are 5 wires in the trunk at the tail light assembly that run into it, all of m have been cut and respliced, Brown, Yellow, Lt. Green, Dk. Green, and Pink. They originally had the wire running from the brake pedal switch under the dash to the brown wire at the assembly, that was obviously the wrong one, EVERY set of lights on the car has a brown wire running in and I guess by attaching to that one it controlled them all. I spent all night trying every combination of wire I could find.

Run in to brown and it makes all the lights come on, except headlights, when I apply brake, and then the brake lights barely illuminate, so you can't tell that its been applied.

Run it to light green or pink, nothing happens, no brake light.

Run it to either light green or yellow and the brake lights work, but if you use a blinker, (depending on which wire is connected), one blinker will work, but the other just gets bright and does not blink if brake is applied, release brake and it blinks again.

I dont think the wire should really be running to any of them, am I right?

The third tail light had been d/c by the previous owner and i hooked it back up with the wire from under dash going to it, It comes on when brake is applied, but not the ones in the tail lights, what to do now???

Go to the library reference section and look for the electrical and chassis book on your car. Spend a few pesos and photocopy the electrical circuitry for what you need to fix. They give colors so you can match things up.

I had an old Caddy that was wired under the hood using lamp wire, I wound up splicing in a junkyard harness, which might not be a bad idea or you. If you can find a yard with a stripped out car, there might be one with a good harness.

Bob

Go to the library reference section and look for the electrical and chassis book on your car. Spend a few pesos and photocopy the electrical circuitry for what you need to fix. They give colors so you can match things up.

I had an old Caddy that was wired under the hood using lamp wire, I wound up splicing in a junkyard harness, which might not be a bad idea or you. If you can find a yard with a stripped out car, there might be one with a good harness.

Bob

I have a haynes manual for the car, it has diagrams in the back, I scannd mine it can be found below.....

I was thinking about rewiring the system but am confused about a few things. Mainly at the brake pedal switch, it has a connector on the back and one on the bottom, the wires running from the back connector are fine, except some kind of pigtail that is not connected, but the wire the pigtail is on is running fine with no d/c. The 2 wires are pink with a black stripe, and the other is purple. Neither wire seems to be listed on the diagram. The other connector has a orange wire, and the other wire is the missing wire that makes running one from here to the tail lamps have to happen.

Does one of the connectors control the tail lamps and the other control the high stop light/ 3rd light?

The Diagram
http://www.geocities.com/locc211/elecdiag.jpg

We're getting a little complicated...

Locc, the wiring is pretty simple. Brown is running lights. They go to the dim filament in the 1157 bulb. Yellow is left turn/brake and green is right turn/brake. The turn signals and brake lights are on the same circuit, and those wires go to the bright filament on the 1157 bulb. So what you describe is correct. The yellow wire should be on with the brakes, but blinking if the left turn signal (or 4-way flashers) is on. Same goes for the right turn.

So, the order goes like this, as far as rear lighting is concerned:

Brown wire; fuse panel, headlight switch, to both rear light assemblies
Yellow wire; fuse panel, flasher (in fuse panel) turn signal switch in column, left turn signal in left light assembly.
Green wire; fuse panel, flasher, turn signal switch in column, right turn signal in right light assembly.

The brakes are tied in via magic :) Not really, I just won't go into it since its a confusing issue. Basically what happens is that the turn signals have priority. If the brakes are off, they flash. If the brakes are on, they still flash. But, they are carried by the same yellow and green wires.

By the way... consult your haynes manual, but the other wires are possibly for a shift interlock and/or cruise cancel. Some cars you can't shift out of drive unless your foot is on the brake. It wasn't common in 85, but the upscale cars often had it. The cruise control also uses a switch to interrupt speed control when you hit the brake. Some use the existing brake light switch, but newer cars (about your age range) started using more complicated cruise setups that required different switches.

Well thanks guys for all the help and comments.

I finally figured it out last night. I found where the wire that was broke at the brake pedal switch was running to and put a wire from the switch to there and voila, action. I really don't know why I or the previous owner hadnt thought of that, I guess they figured it easier to bypass the problem instead of fixing it, and in the end that only caused more. Thanks again