Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Brake light switch

Morning all,
Just a quickie: last night roof down cold air brief smell of burning .All lights and indicators working inc fog and reverse but no brake lights, Occams Razor ? burnt out switch. ? It is 16 years old.
Thanks for any replies.

Yes that's the first place Id look. Brake light sw is mounted on the peddle box so a very physical function rather than a modern hydraulic pressure switch. Might be the switch itself or wiring caught in the mechanism but you smelt burning with the roof down so originated in the car. first port of cacc anyway.

If it has the old hydraulic switch I found if you are quick they can be changed on the fly.

If it is a pedal mounted brake light push switch note it's a normally closed (n/c) one. With brake pedal in resting position the switch plunger is pressed but releases when brakes operated. Sort of fail safe - most of the time

16 years old? The car or the switch? 16 years ago was roughly the transition period for the brake light switch system the MMC had been using for a half-century.

You will find yours here. https://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/brakelightswitch.html#RECENT

L

Ian, one switch on the pedal bracket is as Richard says and the other is the fuel stop signal to the ECU, this was researched way back on here by myself and Heinz thoroughly.

Definitely not an hydraulic switch as has been indicated above, RS Components sell them, they are an industry standard limit switch and both N/C and N/O available.

Well it is the switch. The plunger does not move freely so I suspect the spring ? inside. Thanks for the bit of wire trick: bridging it makes the brakes work as does pulling the little black plunger out and reconnecting the wiring. My local motofactors need a serial number and I notice that someone has cut the switch and effaced the serial number. WHY ????

To charge more for an MMC part maybe ......

Interesting that you too had brake light failure caused by the switch. I had one fail in 2022 on my 2014 Pus 4 GDI; in my case severe pitting of the internal contacts.
When I looked for a replacement mine was a switch manufactured by APEM. I managed to get some of the part number off the old one (it was 1212) but on looking at the manufacturers info I noted that there is the same model but with uprated contacts to silver to increase the current rating at 12V from max 3A to 8A. So I bought the higher rated version (a 1212A). Anyway – all is good now but I now carry a spare !!
It was fairly easy to change the switch – remove wired connectors, remove the metal bracket and switch, replace switch , replace switch and bracket and then reconnect wires. When replacing switch I had to make sure that some of the plastic casing was ‘nibbled’ off to replicate that on original switch removed so that it fitted (high-tech engineering !). So if carrying a spare suggest this is done on the spare at home in garage before using as a spare as it would be very difficult to do at the roadside/in car park or wherever….

I have one purchased from Melvyn Rutter about £11 if I remember right 1212c. It's made in France label says 1036252 made in France RoHS 2, mine was stuck I bought the replacement about 3 years ago while waiting for it I squirted WD40 into it freed it off and and it's still working.