Damned BRAKE LIGHT SWITCH sucks in a dangerous way. Any better solution???
 

IMO, one of the most unsafe items on a 911 is how late the damn brake light (fluid pressure) switch activates the brake lights.
Ridiculous. Even installing a new one doesn't seem to help.

Is there any other switch that activates earlier?
Or any mod that can be done?

I'm tired of the relatively dim brake lights PLUS the high effort/quick stops required to activate the brake lights.....

Ideas?

Some one did a thread about adapting an earlier mechanical style to a later car, try a search

One of the members installed a switch on the pedal. I think he bought most of the parts from JC Whitney. May be able to do a search.

Tried the search - zip.
Ideally, a switch with a lower activated pressure is the best solution.

Found this from early this past summer:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=293795&highlight=mechan ical+brake+switch

When searching for "mechanical brake switch"

There's a product for motorcycles that adds an additional brake light and uses a mercury switch. I'm always leery about home-made fixes to something as important as brake lights, but a redundant light could be added as a safety feature.

http://www.brakeflasher.com/cycle.htm

(Only downside? A flashing brake light is going to be more noticeable to law enforcement when you see them and decide to quickly slow down.)

Craig, you found the one I was refering to. I feel like if it could be reliable enough it would be much better to take the hydraulic switch out of the loop.

I think the switch setup in almost all other cars and even some years of ours is a better solution.

I wonder if anyone has taken one out of a 911 that had that kind of switch and retroed it in. That might be an option.

Interesting! And I thought I was the only one who had this problem. Even installed a new switch, no improvement, was beginning to worry that I had something faulty.

You could also use the cruise switch which is already activated by the brake pedal

The cruise switch is a good idea. Those little f'rs cost me 1/2 a track day once when I had no brake lights. Two new switches are now std spares for me.

My Mechanical switch is still running fine. Gotta love it.

And now, i remember the other reason to Mech the switch....

nothing like hitting your brakes with a faulty switch and cruise controll at 70 MPH..."hey, i am not slowing down????"

Oh, and the Photos that WON posted look just like mine....

I agree, same problem with mine, it doesn't come on as lightly as I use the brakes sometimes. Also, having big brakes and weight reduction and wider tires, the thing slows down real quick, and I don't want to have to stab them to get the lights to come on.

Any switch can go bad, there can also be issues w/ the old mechanical switch when it is used w/ a big m/c and calipers w/ smallish cylinders. In that case there isn't enough travel to actuate the switch under light braking.

I had the same problem with my 84 carrera. I used a brake switch that turns on, on release, rather than having to be pushed. I made a small L bracket and it screws to the plywood foot board. The switch pushes against the the pedal. Soon as you push the pedal it activates the brake lights. My 740 Turbo Volvo has the same setup from Volvo. If interested I will take some pictures and give you the part number.

Sure, that'd be great to post the part number - I need to fab something like has been mentioned here.

Somebody on the thread referenced by Craig911 claims that the slow-brakelight-reaction problem is caused by installing the brakelight switches without pre-filling them with brake fluid, which leaves an air bubble inside them, and that that's what is causing the slow reaction.

Does anybody have any comment on that? Can we solve all our problems wimply by removing the switches and in effect bleeding them? Certainly easier than kludging up J C Whitney contact switches...

Oh, and thanks, Jack Olson--just bought a couple of those motorcycle mercury-switch LED arrays. We had a Boxster destroyed by a Ford Excursion last summer, damn near killed my wife, so I'm now paranoid.

WOW. If you have not looked at the setup that JackO referenced - it is worth a look.
I am going to purchase 1 or 2 - great idea.

The switch is a CarQuest part # SLS66. I used the wires from the pressure switch, can be reversed easily anytime.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160773880.jpg

run them in parallel
 

i would wire them in parallel with the original switches then either /or will bring the lights on