How can I fix the brake lights on a 1967 VW?

Answer 1

The brake light switch is located directly on the brake master cylnder. Look behind the drivers side wheel well and think in the direction of where the back of the gas pedal would be. (You'll be doing this "under" the car.) There should be two switches on the side closest to you. Each switch has two wires coming out.

If you've got a multimeter, you can look for the 12 volts at the sockets themselves when someone pushes on the brake pedal. Make sure you use your meter correctly and have a good ground to touch the black lead to. (The sides of the light socket itself are the ground.) If you don't have a good ground, you could be touching the contact and there could be 12 volts there and you'd never see it.

It depends on how much of the original wiring is intact and how much wiring you feel comfortable installing. If the original wiring is intact you can test the switches by shorting the wires in the back of the switch. If it is a bad switch, then change the switches. If you have an electrical tester, I would recomend finding out whether there is even power going to the brake light switches, and then if you still can't find the problem, I would do an ohm test between the wire after the last switch and the bulb socket to check for wire damage.

In one rare case, both sockets and brake lights had "lost contact" due to just enough corrosion to prevent them working. It didn't look bad, but neither light worked because of the problem. Use steel wool to clean out the sockets and the contacts in the base of them, and also to clean off the base of the lamps themselves.

If that doesn't help, email me. I have the same year and I've done a total restoration.