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Johns30 · 06-27-2016, 09:31 PM

New member here. I have a 1930 town sedan (Murray) that I acquired about 2 months ago. Very nicely restored about 8 years ago, but not perfect. Will try to get some pictures for the Barn soon. This site is awesome!

I've done a lot of reading and searching of other threads on the subject but still can't seem to figure my stop light problem out yet. I'm a total newbie to Model A's and am not good with electrical gremlins

.
I "think" everything worked when I bought it but not 100% sure. I've added a disconnect switch from Snyders on the ground side recently which works awesome -I have a hard time believing that has anything to do with this problem but that's the only thing I've messed with so far. Car is original 6V positive ground.
Here are the facts:
1. Electrically, everything on the car works as it should except for this problem.
2. When I depress the brake pedal with nothing else on, neither brake light works.
3. If I turn on the cowl lights or headlights, both tail lights DO work.
4. With the cowl lights or headlights ON, if I then depress the brake pedal, the driver side brake light comes on, but the passenger side does not (and further, the passenger side tail light then goes off). All bulbs are ok since I've tried them on both sides, and have also tried new ones.

I believe my brake light switch works properly due to #4 and since I've tried bypassing it with no difference. I have a test light and have verified that there is no power coming into the brake light switch UNLESS the cowl or headlights are on. Weird.

Lastly, I bypassed the "bail" with a lead directly from the starter to the brake switch, and still there's no power coming into the brake light switch (this was something Tom Endy suggested in another post to see if it is a problem inside the "bail").

Sorry for the length of this post. Could this be a ground problem, maybe in the passenger brake light side? If so, how would I test this or fix this? I know everyone says bad grounds can cause weird problems but I don't know how to go about finding a bad ground. I would need someone to dumb it down for me...a lot

. Or any other ideas as to how to trouble shoot this?
Thank you in advance!

06-27-2016, 09:31 PM	#1
Johns30 Member Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 32	Stop light and tail light problem New member here. I have a 1930 town sedan (Murray) that I acquired about 2 months ago. Very nicely restored about 8 years ago, but not perfect. Will try to get some pictures for the Barn soon. This site is awesome! I've done a lot of reading and searching of other threads on the subject but still can't seem to figure my stop light problem out yet. I'm a total newbie to Model A's and am not good with electrical gremlins . I "think" everything worked when I bought it but not 100% sure. I've added a disconnect switch from Snyders on the ground side recently which works awesome -I have a hard time believing that has anything to do with this problem but that's the only thing I've messed with so far. Car is original 6V positive ground. Here are the facts: 1. Electrically, everything on the car works as it should except for this problem. 2. When I depress the brake pedal with nothing else on, neither brake light works. 3. If I turn on the cowl lights or headlights, both tail lights DO work. 4. With the cowl lights or headlights ON, if I then depress the brake pedal, the driver side brake light comes on, but the passenger side does not (and further, the passenger side tail light then goes off). All bulbs are ok since I've tried them on both sides, and have also tried new ones. I believe my brake light switch works properly due to #4 and since I've tried bypassing it with no difference. I have a test light and have verified that there is no power coming into the brake light switch UNLESS the cowl or headlights are on. Weird. Lastly, I bypassed the "bail" with a lead directly from the starter to the brake switch, and still there's no power coming into the brake light switch (this was something Tom Endy suggested in another post to see if it is a problem inside the "bail"). Sorry for the length of this post. Could this be a ground problem, maybe in the passenger brake light side? If so, how would I test this or fix this? I know everyone says bad grounds can cause weird problems but I don't know how to go about finding a bad ground. I would need someone to dumb it down for me...a lot . Or any other ideas as to how to trouble shoot this? Thank you in advance!