Brake Pedal Light Switch (Venting)

[Jimjific 23]

So I spent the better part of the weekend putting in a power brake booster. I switched out the pedal also. I have hooked everything up and now my brake lights are always on. SO I looked to see if Mustangs Unlimited listed a different switch for power brakes and sure enough they do. So I was wondering can anyone tell me what difference is here or why they would be different?

 

Now the venting. This is the kind of crap this annoys the hell out of me about Ford, it seems anytime you switch anything, there is are a million little things that seem to have to be changed too for apparently now good reason. It's like going to the DMV, you never seem to have everything you need. GM did a way better job at interchangability. Done ranting, maybe it's the daily flooding rain we've been getting here in the North East.

 

Jim

[69gmachine 15]

Jim,

 

The difference is the amount of travel required to make the switch close. Since the pivot point is much higher on the power brake pedal, it requires more travel than the manual pedal.

 

Hang in there!

[1969vert 55]

Power brake switches have less resistence to activate in a power brake car.. My convertible had no brake lights unless you jamed on the brakes.. I followed my wife on day and acused her of not using the brakes..Found out I had a non power switch in a power brake car..Replaced it and its all good now..:thumbup:

[Jimjific 23]

So I bought a "Power Brake" switch. I installed it and knew before I pulled myself out of the car that the brake lights were going to still be on and they were. Then I got to thinking that maybe if I took out the plastic bushing that was in the master cylinder plunger (This was on the brake pedal when I took to old one out.) it would give the pedal some play. The brake lights still were on. So I switched back to the non power switch and now it all works fine. So I guess I wasted $22.

 

So the question to you you guys running power brakes, do you have a plastic bushing that slides over the brake pedal peg?

 

I did throw a seat in quick and went for ride. It's going to be nice having the power brakes.

 

Thanks,

Jim

[69gmachine 15]

I'm still using the plastic bushing. When I convered to power brakes I had the same problem. Changing to the correct switch solved the problem for me.

[Jimjific 23]

I will check the part to see if they geve me the right one.

 

Thanks,

Jim

[shaun071 62]

This is handy to know as I'll be doing a power disc conversion in the next few weeks. It was the one thing I hadn't thought of.

[70mstang 11]

When I first swapped to PB, I didn't change the switch. I didn't know there was a difference either. I checked the brake lights when mashing the pedal in the garage and everything seemed to work fine.

 

It wasn't until I was actually driving that lots of cars were almost rear ending me that I figured out that the amount of pressure needed for the manual switch was way more than I needed for the car to stop or slow down with the new power brakes.

 

That's when I started looking for the power brake switch. Now I can tap on the pedal and the folks behind me get a glare of LEDs in their face and back off.

[buening 63]

Compare the springs on the two switches. There is a visible difference in the springs (either wire diameter or number of coils...can't remember which).