dash gauge lights up when brake pedal pressed

B

bullfrog

Junior Member
Hi everyone

Just finished putting all new wiring in my 51 Ford f2. Its 6 volt and I followed the instructions completely. I am wondering why when I push on the brake pedal that instrument cluster gauge light turns on and then off when I let off the brake pedal.....Any thoughts?

Thanks
 
Possibly a bad ground at the tail light letting the brake filament grounding through
the tail light filament and feeding back to the park and instrument lights.
 
I agree with Bob C. A bad ground somewhere. If it's the tail/brake housing, the brake lights are probably pretty dim if grounded thru the instrument cluster lights. Jack E/NJ
 
I had the same problem on my '55 F100 with a high quality reproduced wire harness. I found I had hooked up the harness from the turn signal switch to the under dash harness wrong. 2 wires as I recall, changed them around at the connection and all worked well. my second problem is a slow acting blinker and weak brake lights, check your grounds. I have found with the attention to detail on getting everything painted real nice and a wood floor in the box with insulators in between the box and the frame the ground was intermittent. I ran separate ground wires from frame to each signal bulb sockets as a temporary test. Cured the problem.
 
I've got the same prob with my '40 Ford. I've tried everything to stop it. Mine are the original wires though.

What ground wire should we look for ?

Mike
 
Yes, absolutely a bad earth on one or both of your tail light housings as mentioned by others here. Take a short length of wire and touch one end to your metal tail light housing or rim and connect other end to the metal bumper or chassis bare metal. Press the brake pedal and see the results. Too much paint on your tail light housings that needs to be cleaned off so bare metal contact is made to the body. Regards, Kevin.
 
Bulfrog - you haven't said anything about your brake lights. I.e. do the gauges light in addition to the brakes or instead of the brakes.



Sounds to me like the main light switch is incorrectly wired.
 
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