951Dreams

So, the short and sweet of this post is going to be this.... The parking brake switch is mounted on a little arm that is very bendable. In fact I figured out that's even how your supposed to adjust the switch. So before getting all redneck crazy, make sure it's adjusted before doing anything else. Trust me on this.

TL;DR version:

Washed the turbo today. When I was pulling it back into the driveway it occurred to me that now would be a good time to see if maybe the reason my parking brake light didn't work was because of the switch. Grabbed a flashlight and got to looking. Didn't take long to figure out the plunger part of the switch was not moving, so started pulling back the carpet to have a look.

I could tell right away the wire had been cut. So I'm figuring the switch is broke and a PO had decided the solution to the light always being on was too cut the wire. So I grab a screw diver and remove the switch to take a look.

Man, that switch was ALL jacked up. I'm guessing at some point in the past something got caught between the lever and the switch and someone decided to just force the lever down anyway, the switch is fairly flimsy.

So I get it in the vice, and go to town with some needle nose pliers, get it working again finally (plunger moving). Tone it out with my MM, hit the connections with the dermel, and crimp on a new female spade connector to the cut wire.

I'm thinking I've got this thing licked.... But once installed I can't get the carpet back right, and it's also messing with the function of the switch. When it get it almost back right, the switch hits on the carpet and won't move. I almost get ready to just cut all that carpet away, it seems the spade connector I used was much longer and bigger than the original, and it's just not going to work. But before getting crazy I decide to pull it again and go a more redneck route.

After looking at all my options, I decide to soldier a wire onto the switch, cut the terminal off, and also run the wire on the side away from the carpet. All is going fairly well, till I get the connector part a little too hot, and it melts the plastic plunger part it's mounted into and it all comes apart.



After some Googling, it seems the stock switch itself is NLA, and they are selling door pin switches in place of it. However, those have a big long plastic peice that's going to cause me worse issues with my carpet!!! So I get inventive, and finally get my switch back to working order. But man is this thing rigged up!! It's working, but bent up all to heck.

Here's what I ended up with:



So I try again. Still having issues with the carpet, but it's better. I can almost get it to work. End up making a slit about 1/4 inch long in the carpet, more or less just elongating the existing hole a bit. With a lot of work I get the switch poking out of the hole, and the carpet situated in a way that's workable. Go to test it out, and while I've got a light now for the first time, it's not going off! I reach under there and discover the top of the switch is at least 1.5 finger widths from the lever..... WTH?????

So anyway, I decide to just grab a nice long screwdriver and start prying. That's when I discover the mounting arm for the switch is super bendy, and I guess it got all bent out of shape when the switch got damaged.

If I had known this, I'd have saved myself about 80% of my time and trouble. All my issues getting it to work were because it was out of place! No wonder the carpet was giving me fits!!! The switch wasn't where it was supposed to be!

Anyway, it's working now...... But the way I did it is NOT the way to be doing it. Just saying.

Tiger03447

Thanks for the tips! I have mine out as well, but it will take more investigation to see if it is functional or not..

V2Rocket

i just installed one of these about 12 years ago, no issues since.

dmjames

Ooh, I like it. I know mine isn't working right now, but that's mostly because there's a wire not actually connected to it. If there's more to it than that, I like this solution.

jhowell371

That switch was used in VW buses. Try sourcing one from them.

951Dreams

It's really a simple switch, like most on these, it's just a ground trigger. It's just really flimsy. That's bad for getting damaged, but good for getting it back working. A vice, needle nose pliers, and some jeweler's screwdrivers and it's pretty simple to get working. I wish I had taken before pics. Mine was REALLY bent all to hell.

To be honest, not knowing it was out of place was 99% of my trouble. The switch itself was pretty easy.

thomasmryan

that part number goes back to the 50s