<VV> Problem with left rear brake light

[Dave Thompson]

Chuck,
Two things come to mind. 

First, Earlies are notorious for bad grounds on the tail lights. This gives
"weird" and intermittent response from the tail/turn/brake lamp. I "gave up"
and ran a ground wire from the socket housing to body ground. That fixed the
problem.

Second, The brake lights and turn signals all go through the turn signal
switch low on the column. Perhaps you have a bad switch. I have disassembled
one of mine and cleaned the contacts. Later I just replaced it. Another
issue I have had (which caused me to replace the repaired switch) is the way
the turn signal cable from the lever to the switch attaches to the switch.
The "tang" allowed the cable to slip which allowed the lever to get out of
adjustment. This out of adjustment causes weird response form the lever. 

Good luck and give us a report on what you found

Dave Thompson

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles McKinley [mailto:cmckinley313 at cox.net] 
Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 7:36 AM
To: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Problem with left rear brake light

My 63 Monza 900 has had a chronic problem with the left rear brake  
light being intermittent at best, and I wonder if others of you  
Vairiants have run into the same thing. Sometimes (but not always) I  
can get it to work by fiddling with the turn signal lever, but nothing  
seems to completely cure the problem, and I almost always get hollered  
at for it when I get the car inspected. The right rear brake light is  
as reliable as Gibraltar, but the left is maybe 50%. Suggestions are  
most welcome! Before you touch on the obvious, I've checked the bulbs  
and socket repeatedly. The left turn signal and tail light works just  
fine, it's only the brake light that's flaky.

Thanks in advance,
Chuck McKinley