Brake lights

[Alex Ganum]

I was hoping some could explain why my brake lights don't come on until the brake pedal is about half way depressed. Any help on fixing this problem would be very appreciated.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Mine do the same thing.

I believe that the brake light switch is out of adjustment. In fact, on mine I may have "tweaked" the lever arm of the switch too much for simple adjustment when I had the cluster out, so I will be replacing it sometime soon.

Remove the driver's floor board. Two allen screws, get the carpet out of the way, and do LOTS of careful maneuvering and shoving on the pedals. Then check where the little "arm" on the brake light switch contacts the flared-out part of the brake pushrod. I am told that you can loosen the mounting screws and rotate the switch some. This makes the lever arm on the switch more or less pressed when the pedal is at "rest". (I hope this makes sense, I didn't look real hard at it when I had it apart last time.)

I have not done the adjustment myself yet, so I am just relating what I have heard. If anyone has better info, please post it.

--DD

[John Rogers]

In the Haynes manual, page 129, there is a procedure to adjust the switch. You might want to measure the free play in the rod between the pedal and master cylinder, it is only 1mm. When we got our 914 there was about 1/2 inch of clearance and the brakes felt much nicer after setting proper clearance. We also installed the BMW 320 front calipers which helped stopping too.