<VV> Brakes pulling right and no light

[Frank DuVal]

Brake light test:

Do the rear lights work when the turn signals are used? (Ignition on) If 
so the bulbs are good.

If you step on the brake while signaling, does one side blink and the 
other light steady? If you hold the brake pedal down and move the turn 
signal lever between positions (Ignition off), do the lights light? If 
so, the turn signal switch is probably the culprit.

The best test is to see if there is voltage on both terminals of the 
brake light switch when the pedal is depressed. No voltage on either  
terminal, look for a bad fuse. Voltage on one terminal (with pedal 
depressed), the switch is bad. Voltage on both terminals, look at the 
turn signal switch.

If the brake light switch button does separate from the brake pedal arm 
when the brakes are applied, that is correct, do not adjust. The 
adjustment is to turn OFF the brake lights. The lights turn off by 
pressing in on the button.

Frank DuVal

Stephen Upham wrote:

>	Tested the brakes on the way to the NTCA meeting today.  The car is  
>veering to the right when the brakes are applied.  Of course, to my  
>layman mind, this means that the right front brake is stopping the  
>car better than the left front brake.   This may be the result of my  
>replacing only the left shoes last summer when I had the leaking  
>wheel cylinder.  Forgot that it is highly recommended to replace  
>shoes in pairs.  Even doing that, the car did not pull as bad as it  
>is now.  The left shoes only have about 500 miles on them, remember  
>that the car had been in group red for ten of the last twelve months  
>with the wiring harness issue.  When I put on the new springs, I  
>installed the set of shoes that were still in the box (from the set  
>that I used on the left side), on the right side.  Anyway, is there a  
>way to adjust the brakes to grab at the same pressure using the self  
>adjusting "star" wheel, or am I looking at yet another new set of  
>shoes up front?  One club member who is widely respected nationally  
>in the Corvair community said that would probably be the only way to  
>solve the problem.
>	But hang on it gets better, and by that I really mean worse.   When  
>I was leaving the meeting, a fellow member called out to me at a stop  
>light.  It turned out that I did not have any brake lights!!  I  
>looked at the switch on the pedal and the arm does allow the switch  
>button to come all the way out (separated from contact with the  
>switch), the fuse is ok, and at least the parking lights do work.  It  
>would seem unlikely that both brake light filaments would tank at the  
>same time.  I did notice after reading in the manual that the  
>clearance between the pedal arm and the stop needs to be adjusted as  
>the arm is resting on the stop.  Don't know if this would/could cause  
>this symptom.  I loosened the securing nut, but I was apprehensive to  
>turn the bolt that goes though the tuning fork shaped attachment, the  
>part with the ridges but no nut for a wrench, because it looks like I  
>could screw up something inside of the rubber casing it goes into  
>that is located on the firewall.  Probably not, but given all that I  
>have gone through and what little I know, I ALWAYS ask first and  
>usually wait for at least two confirmations before proceeding.  Sorry  
>so long, but more information is better than less.
>
>Stephen Upham
>
>  
>