1934 Brake/Stoplights

[Karl]

Took the 34 to work today in our misty winter rain . Had the lights on and when I parked the car and turned everything off I noted that the tail lights were still on - Reworking the light switch did nothing but when I pumped the brake pedal the tail lights went out. Tonight I checked it out The taillights work fine but when I push the brake pedal the tail lights just go brighter. The brake light bulbs (ie the separate lower brake bulbs in the tail light housing ) don't light up.

I think the "brake lights" hung up because water got into the switch. However I can't explain why I suddenly have taillights and brake lights combined - can a bad earth cause this ??

[PeteVS]

You might see a car on the road with both tail lights lit. When the driver steps on the brake, one brake light comes on and the tail light on the other side goes out. This is caused by a bad ground in the light that goes out. When the brakes are off, the tail light in the light with the bad ground grounds through the brake light filament and then back to the other light and continues to ground through that light's filament. When the driver applies the brakes, that ground path is lost. I don't know if that applies to your case but it might be a similar situation.

[JSeery]

Originally Posted by Karl

Tonight I checked it out The taillights work fine but when I push the brake pedal the tail lights just go brighter. The brake light bulbs (ie the separate lower brake bulbs in the tail light housing ) don't light up.

Doesn't the 34 tail light normally only have one bulb per side? It should be a two filament bulb and behave as you described. The less bright filament is the tail light and the brighter filament is the brake light. When you are looking at the tail light the single bulb would get brighter with the brakes applied.

[petehoovie]

Do you have any slop (free play) in the brake pedal? If the brake pedal return spring is broken, the brake lights will usually remain on after the car is parked....

[Karl]

Originally Posted by JSeery

Doesn't the 34 tail light normally only have one bulb per side? It should be a two filament bulb and behave as you described. The less bright filament is the tail light and the brighter filament is the brake light. When you are looking at the tail light the single bulb would get brighter with the brakes applied.

Definitely two bulbs but I have indicators on it and I suspect the auto electrician modified it so that the Brake bulbs work as indicators and the Tail lights function as you suggest -I will ask him today -Karl

[JSeery]

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If you have a cover off post a photo.

[Karl]

This is what it looks like with the lens off
Top is tailight/brakelight Bottom is indicator

[koates]

Karl, what make or type of indicator switch do you have fitted. Some switches have multiple contacts and wires to allow one stop light or the other to operate as a rear indicator. There is a feed wire from the stoplight switch output which goes to the indicator switch to allow this to happen. Say you are turning right with the right indicator on and your foot on the brake pedal then you will only have one left side stop light on. In my opinion this is not a good set up in these modern times. You need all the stop lights you can muster on the back so these modern dickhead drivers don't run up your backside whilst surfing their mobile phones. I have separate amber indicators on the rear of my cars so as TWO stoplights are working. We are somewhat different to the USA here in NZ and Australia. For your safety give it some thought. Yes some will say they have never had a problem but modern drivers in our countries are not looking for flashing red indicators and may become confused by them. All the 34 fords I have ever worked on have only one stop/tail bulb in their lights. But 1933 fords had the two bulb type mostly. Maybe in NZ the factory was using up old stocks of 33 lights on the 34 models. Regards, Kevin.

[koates]

Buy the way I think you have bad earthing on your rear lights. Just try tightening up the two mounting screws inside each light and also the tail light stands mounting screws to the rear mudguards. (All right FENDERS then). That might just fix it without adding separate earth wires. Regards, Kevin.

[koates]

On close inspection of the photo of your rear light, I recon it has been modified with an extra bulb socket for the indicator. The top bulb is for tail and indicator ( twin filament)and the bottom bulb is for stop light ?? Funny way of doing it. Regards, Kevin.

[JSeery]

That's what I thought Kevin.