Brakes: tailights and pedal travel

[Larry Malmstrom]

My 1956 powerhawk has brake lights, but it take quite a bit of pressure to get them to come on...I've looked for a pressure switch...cant seem to locate one...whats up...how does the system work? Thanks larry

[Alan]

Should be on the drivers side on a "T" for the front brake hoses, right above and to the 2 O' clock position looking down on it from the drivers side fender.

[r1lark]

+2 on what Alan said. Easy to change out.

But I finally got tired of changing out switches, they seem to go bad quickly. And mine would do the same as yours -- require higher and higher pedal pressure to activate it. These days, with idiots not paying attention to driving (cell phones, texting, reading the newspaper, curling their hair, etc), the brake lights need to activate quickly to give the aforementioned idiots enough time to stop.

Here is what I did -- a mechanical brake light switch on under the floor pedals like your Hawk: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...al+brake+light

There are a few other threads on the same subject, search on 'mechanical brake light switch' or similar.

[thunderations]

Ditto on the pressure switches going bad, especially if you use synthetic brake fluid. Changing the switch is easy and if you get one from some auto stores, they have a lifetime warrantee. Every year or so just get a new one if you don't want to go with the mechanical switch, which by the way, is a superior way to fix the problem for good.

[StudeDave57]

We not only have threads, we have videos~

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...hanical-switch

One of these days 'life' will stop getting in my way and I'll try this one out for my myself...





StudeDave '57