This 1988 Chevrolet C1500 pickup came in with the complaint that the stoplights or brake lights do not work. The customer had already replaced the stoplight switch, bulbs and fuse. Why he replaced all of that and did not bother checking anything I do not know?? I did check the fuse and it was okay. Time to removed the lower dash cover. Two phillips head screws.
What a rats nest of wiring, but here is the problem. The white wire going into the turn signal switch is broken therefore no brake lights.
I confirmed that there was power coming from the brake light switch to the turn signal switch as shown below.
A clearer picture of the broken wire at the turn signal switch connector.
I replaced the wire and terminal. I had the correct terminal but you could actually jump the wiring around the connectors and just splice into place. I added some length to help prevent a quick failure
Reassembled the connectors and attached to the side of the steering column in it’s hold down bracket.
This is the main reason for the wire failure and my reason for adding extra wire length. The steering column tilt mechanism is very loose and needs to be repaired. I offered but the customer declined repairing at this time.
Wow, the pictures were amazing. Even if it doesn’t fix my problem I loved learning through your site!