[Project 64 Impala Wagon]

Found this under my dash.
It was in the pulled out postion.

When in the pulled out postion everytime I hit my brakes my blinkers on the dash light up solid no blinking.
In the pushed in postion it does nothing. I dont see a hazard switch so wasnt sure if thats what this is? Where is it suppose to go?

Taillights are not working
First thing I did was check fuse, next was I changed all the bulbs with brand new ones 1157LL. My blinkers work fine, and my brake lights work fine just no tail lights. Any suggestions?? Tried with ignition on and off running not running everything so now i guess I need to trace some wires to see if one got cut or disconnected?
Thanks in advance for any and all help
Bernie

 

[77Impala]

I think it is the old hazard switch. Might check and see if you have a second flasher unit under the dash near the turn signal flasher. And if you do see if you can switch the two flasher units and and see if you can make the emergency flasher circuit work.
The switch could have gone bad.

On Ebay I found an original factory wiring schematic for my Impala, you might want to look up one for your car. It helps out in times like this.

 

[CarlKing]

What is this?

Yes, this is your hazard switch.

It may have dirty contacts that aren't completing the circuit for the tailights.

Try pulling out the button and spraying WD40 into it at the shaft entrance. Work it back and forth. You may need to loosen the cover plate screws to allow the WD40 to drain off.

Carl

 

[Project 64 Impala Wagon]

I got them working
Thanks for the help.
It is def a hazard switch.
I found out that its a simple plug and play to the stock harness so I just removed the unit and plugged my factory harnesses back together and now the taillights work.
I might put it back on later but till I get it cleaned up and working correctly its staying off.

One more question.
My front parking lights only come on when either the blinkers are blinking or when in the parking lights postion on the headlight switch. They do not come on when the headlights are on is this normal.
Thanks
Bernie

 

[N8N]

yes that is normal (the parking lights not staying on with the headlights) at least for cars built before the late 60's.

As for your flarestat - I bet that the flasher for it is bad. Or is it completely missing? If it was pulled out and not flashing, but the brake lights were connected to the front turn signals, sounds like the switch part is working correctly but that it wasn't flashing for whatever reason. I bet it was playing hell with your turn signals too. you have the right idea, get everything working correctly without it then reintroduce it to the wiring.

edit: if the flarestat was messing with your taillights then it probably wasn't hooked up correctly and/or your taillights have bad grounds. It should only be connected to the turn signals in the front and brake/turn in the rear (consider those functions separate from the parking lights even though they are in the same bulb; there's two different filaments, one low-wattage one for parking lights and one high-wattage one for turn signal or brake/turn) you should have four wires all one color and one different one coming out of the unit, the same color wires go to LF turn, RF turn, LR brake/turn and RR brake/turn. Which one goes where does not matter, the flarestat overrides all functions (if you are driving with your hazards on and hit the brakes, all the lights will stay on steady. Your turn signals will not work.) The other wire goes to unswitched +12V (so the hazards can stay on with the key off) use a fused source or put a fuse inline with this wire. Should be a flasher internal to the unit or plugged into the back of it.

Yes, I do have a lot of experience making sketchy wiring in old cars work, why do you ask? (current project is a '55 Stude coupe, and yes, I did replace about half of the wiring harness.)