Brake Light Switch

[markc]

does anyone have any pictures of how they mounted the switch - changing from the pressure switch to the brake pedal type.

 

Many thanks

 

MarkC

 

[Mr Locust]

Yes. Send me a blatmail.

 

Ian

 

Green and Silver Roadsport 😬

[Guy Lowe]

Some HERE

 

Guy _SB Lowe _{o *arrowup*o}

The ZETEC is NOT 🙆🏻 now running here

 

[markc]

Mr L - blatmail sent - Thanks

 

Guy - Thanks

 

MarkC

 

[Mr Locust]

yhm

 

Ian

 

Green and Silver Roadsport 😬

[markc]

Ta 😬

 

MarkC

[k80rum]

Out of curiosity, why do people change from the fluid pressure switch to the mechanical one?

 

I only ask because i've had to de-gunk the inside of my mechanical switch before and I'd have thought the ones installed into the brake line were a fit-and-forget item

 

Darren E

 

Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

[Tom_C]

Darren, we had the pressure switch on our Morgan fail. The real hassle is that if it does fail you have to bleed through the brake lines to change it, plus the garage that did ours failed to adequately tighten the joint leading to a progressive loss of fluid on the Autoroute in France

 

Cheers

 

Tom

 

FH54WLX

 

see here - UPDATED again

[Guy Lowe]

Darren

The pressure switch (from a Mini I seem to remember) is notoriously unreliable, see here I changed 3 in 2 years ☹️

 

Guy _SB Lowe _{o *arrowup*o}

The ZETEC is NOT 🙆🏻 now running here

 

Edited by - Guy Lowe on 26 Sep 2007 09:55:56

[k80rum]

Ah.. Thanks Tom/Guy, I had no idea they were that unreliable and definitely a pig of of a job to change it when it does. Definitely worth the modification then!

 

Cheers

Darren E

 

Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

 

Edited by - k80rum on 26 Sep 2007 10:10:40

[bstark]

Darren - just to back this up, I've just converted to a brake pedal switch as the pressure ones seem to die the instant I take the car on track - which is often 😬.

 

The pressure ones still work after this, but only at the sort of pedal pressure that would make an emergency stop seem tame...

 

Bob Stark

Supersprinter

[strongy]

Mark, I swapped mine as brake lights would ond come on with really heavy braking, some photos on the wanted thread here

 

Dry-sumped White Supersprint

 

Webshots here

[Colin Mill]

I like the mechanical type as you can set them up to come on before the brakes come on at all - just a little bit of forewarning for the chap behind.

[k80rum]

very true - adjusting the position of the mechanical switch ensures you can time the lights to the brakes.

 

I was getting complaints froma friend driving behind me that I didn't seem to be braking much and we realised that light braking effort wasn't sufficient to operate the lights and we adjusted the switch so that it came on as soon as there was even a tiny amount of pedal movement.

 

I've just bought another switch to mount underneath the brake one, which will tell the ECU whether or not the clutch is depressed. (or 😬. ho ho ho)

 

Whilst we're on the topic.. Colin (or any other electrical genius), I have an electronics question relating to my brake lighting system.

 

I have a hydraulic line lock which is electronically operated. I wanted to install a safeguard of some sort, such that you can only switch the line lock on when the brake lights are on.. After the line lock has been switched on, it stays on until i switch it off.

 

Have you any idea how I can achieve this? I can't use the brake switch as the power source for the line lock because whilst this would partly achieve what I'm after, as soon as I took my foot off the brake the power would be cut to the line lock.

 

Does that make sense?

I've got a feeling it'll be easier to use a switch with a cover over it, but this'll be a bit of a pain if I ever use it regularly.

 

Any ideas for an electronic solution would be appreicated.

Darren E

 

Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

Edited by - k80rum on 27 Sep 2007 09:47:11

[kart]

As an aside the pedal-box mounted switches are also notoriously unreliable - though they are easy to change .

[Colin Mill]

Hi Darren

 

I'm sure I can make up a little unit that will do that for you. Effectively we need to use the brake light switch as a latch enable signal so that it operation is inhibited if the light is off and allowed if the light is on but once the lock is energised the latch will not drop out when the light goes out.

 

Give me a nudge again next week - I'm a bit distracted at the moment - doing a talk on helicopter control systems this weekend and early next week making up something that should help Clarkson and Co blow themselves up (the latter is of course a labour of love 😬)

 

Colin

[k80rum]

Cheers Colin, yes, that's exactly what I'm after 😶‍🌫️

 

No problem and thanks a million for helping. I'll ping you a mail this sort of time next week to see how you're doing, and we can take things from there.

 

Assasinating Clarkson & Co eh through electrickery eh? most dutiful...Don't forget to target the Hamster won't you? 😬

 

It's funny you should mention helictopters, I was practicing my training hops in the garden this afternoon when in the same moment that I in a moment of rashness, decided to progress to 6ft hovers, a savage gust of wind picked up my little Twister CP and inverted it 😔 Luckily, landing it's head doesn't seem to have done anything other than stripped a servo gear which I've replaced and it's now right as rain again.

 

Have a great weekend, hope the talk goes well.

Darren

 

Edited by - k80rum on 28 Sep 2007 00:03:37

[markc]

Thanks for all the info/pictures

 

Have now made up bracket - just go to dill holes in the pedal box to mount.

 

Regards

 

MarkC

 

 

[Mark Widdup]

Thought you maybe interested in this as an alternative. Having had many failed fluid pressure switches and also read the posts about patchy performance on the plastic mechanical switches I fitted a spring loaded mechanical switch from autoelectric supplies 2 years ago and it hasn't missed a beat. You simply mount the switch to the back of the pedal box and then attach the end of the spring with the bracket provided to the rod coming out of the master cylinder and thats it. It is a well made brass type structure that I just oil once a year when I take the pedal box cover off. Let me know if you want a photo. Link below should take you straight to the item number.

http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/185

and this is the link for the rubber cover that goes over the mechanism.

http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/186

[Colin Mill]

Hi Darren

 

For some reason I'm having difficulty emailing you regarding the line lock control circuit (replies just bounce??).

 

If all else fails we will just have to start a thread about it 😬

 

Colin

[markc]

Mark

 

That looks such a better looking switch.

 

Thanks

 

MarkC

 

ps - would like a pic when you next take the lid off - Thanks

 

[k80rum]

Hi Colin

 

Great timing! I was just thinking of ressurrecting this thread to get back in contact - I reckoned my plague of emails was getting through to you, but that Hotmail was helpfully ditching any reply from you

 

I've changed my profile email address now, so should be okay for the future, but if you wouldn't mind pinging a mail to me, the address to use is darren(dot)elmslie(at)logicacmg(dot)com

 

Thanks a million. I'll keep my fingers crossed this time too in case it helps...

All the best,

 

 

Darren E

 

Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

 

Edited by - k80rum on 22 Oct 2007 21:30:07

[Colin Mill]

Hi Darren

 

Good one! I'll give that a go as soon as the morning coffee has sunk in enough for me to face my in tray 😬

 

Colin

[k80rum]

Hoorah. Thanks Colin.

 

Nothing in my work account so far.. If you reckon something should be with me by now, let me know your email and I'll try sending to you from this end.

 

If it's just as easy to chat through on the phone and you'd rather do that, I'm on 07824 394628, after about 6pm..

 

best regards,

Darren