Butterthebean
Member
Today I installed a set of Knight Design lowering foot pegs and I wanted to lower the rear brake pedal to match. Like many folks before, I ran into an issue with the rear brake light switch. Basically, you can only lower the brake pedal so far before the switch is activated and the brake light just stays on. The spring on the bottom of the switch is being pulled by the brake pedal... as you lower the pedal you pull the spring and activate the brake light. The switch itself has a little bit of adjustment but not much... or in my case... not enough.
This can be even more problematic for people with cruise control as I believe this will cancel the cruise control.
So.... easy fix. Replace the spring with a longer one. I found this package of springs in home depot's hardware section.
It came with 4 springs..... the 2 larger ones and 2 of the smaller ones. The smaller spring is what I used. Here's a pic of the home depot spring and the stock brake light switch spring. The larger of the 2 is the home depot.
The home depot spring is about 1/4" longer which is perfect. Replace the stock spring with the longer one and you're in business.
On a side note... the spring is connected to a spring loaded pin which seems to want to draw back up into the switch like a turtle going back into his shell. The stock spring is all that keeps it from going up in there. I had to hold that pin with needle nose pliers while removing the spring and installing the longer one. Would not want to let that pin go and find out what happens to it.
Second side note... as I'm sure it's well known on this forum, if you want to lower the brake pedal any distance at all you'll have to remove the clevis joint from the rear master cylinder plunger and shave a little length off the threaded plunger. Under the clevis joint is a cotter pin which will have to be removed first, before the clevis joint. I took off about 5-6 threads worth of material from the threaded plunger. Not much room to remove more than that.
Bottom line …. replacing this spring with a slightly longer one will give you plenty of adjustment on the brake light switch to lower the pedal as much as need be.
This can be even more problematic for people with cruise control as I believe this will cancel the cruise control.
So.... easy fix. Replace the spring with a longer one. I found this package of springs in home depot's hardware section.
It came with 4 springs..... the 2 larger ones and 2 of the smaller ones. The smaller spring is what I used. Here's a pic of the home depot spring and the stock brake light switch spring. The larger of the 2 is the home depot.
The home depot spring is about 1/4" longer which is perfect. Replace the stock spring with the longer one and you're in business.
On a side note... the spring is connected to a spring loaded pin which seems to want to draw back up into the switch like a turtle going back into his shell. The stock spring is all that keeps it from going up in there. I had to hold that pin with needle nose pliers while removing the spring and installing the longer one. Would not want to let that pin go and find out what happens to it.
Second side note... as I'm sure it's well known on this forum, if you want to lower the brake pedal any distance at all you'll have to remove the clevis joint from the rear master cylinder plunger and shave a little length off the threaded plunger. Under the clevis joint is a cotter pin which will have to be removed first, before the clevis joint. I took off about 5-6 threads worth of material from the threaded plunger. Not much room to remove more than that.
Bottom line …. replacing this spring with a slightly longer one will give you plenty of adjustment on the brake light switch to lower the pedal as much as need be.
Any who I was able to lower the switch far enough (with room to spare) to deactive the brake light. Thank you again Guys!!!