Re: [T3] master cylinder

["Jim Adney" <jadney@vwtype3.org>]

On 19 Aug 2007 at 20:45, matthewNstanfield wrote:

> During the work i was doing on my brakes today, i discovered that  
> while there are two brake light switches on my master cylinder, only  
> one of them has wires plugged into it.
> 
> The one that is connected is located towards the rear on the left  
> side. The other one is on the end of the cylinder. As far as i know,  
> the brake lights worked with this setup last time i had the brakes  
> working (10+yrs ago).
> 
> Why are there two switches? Should i take the time to extend the  
> wires to the front switch (they were cut off at the first switch)?

The two switches are wired in parallel, so that if either circuit is 
working the brake lights will come on. The two switches are also 
interconnected in such a way that if one circuit fails, the brake 
warming light on the dash will come on.

Without the front switch, the brake lights will come on whenever the 
rear circuit is working, and the brake warning light will not work. 
It's really not much of a loss, because by the time the light might 
have come on you would already have noticed that the pedal had gone a 
lot farther down than usual.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~