Problem with my Brake pedal?

[samiamryan]

Ive had this problem ever since i bought the car last year. When I release the brake pedal, it comes almost all the way up and the brakes release off the rotors, but it stays down just enough to keep the brake lights on. I use my left foot to pop it all the way up and it stays. It almost feels like it sticks. can anyone help? I do know the slave cylinder was replace just before I bought it. The car runs fine like this unless im in a hurry and jump out of the car and the lights stay on. I get a plesant surprise when I get back.

[Brian P]

sounds like you just need to adjust the brake light switch. Some cars always have some extra play in the pedal if you pull up on it. That's considered normal. What year/make/model?

[Guest Anonymous]

Slave cylinder? Do you mean master cylinder? If it was replaced then Brian is right, the brake light switch is out of adjustment.

[samiamryan]

Master cylinder.....Slave cylinder.....same thing. At least u knew the difference. Its a 1990 Black GPT. 141000 miles. Body has lots of scratches. Its a shell of its once glory days. I use it for a winter car/ dirt track racing car in the summer.

[god910]

Sunshine does that. I can't tell you how many times my battery went dead before I figured out what was going on. Adjust the Brake light switch. Then there's that, "don't dirt track race it" thing.

[Brian P]

OH YOU got a Powermaster! hell yeah. I had to deal with a friend's '89 Cutlass I-series with the PM3 with the same brake light problem. Apparantly the pedal has more "top play" than the other brake setups, so if anyone puts their foot under the pedal and lifts, it puts the switch out of adjustment.

[GutlessSupreme]

Definetly just a switch adjustment. I spent a good 5 hours fiddling with it in the TGP (though it won't take you that long ) I didn't get any pics of when I was doing that job lets see..

 

uuh..

 

if you have small hands, try this:

 

first, get down and position yourself so you can see straight up above the brake pedal. The boot at the bottom of the steering column is going to be the biggest pain in the ass.

 

you should see a yellow/clearish plastic thing up near the top of the brake pedal.. that's the switch. There should be a very small silver metal tab facing the firewall. On one side of the switch, there should be a kinda longish, curved slit where two tabs stick out. pull and hold the metal tab out, and then with whatever fingers/hand you can reach with, grip the two plastic tabs on the side with your finder tips and just move them as far down to the bottom of the curved slit as you can. let go of the metal tab.

 

press the brake pedal all the way to the floor, DO NOT PULL BACK UP ON IT! let it rise again by itself. that should be all you need to do.

 

also, on the rear side of the dash carriage, in front of the pedal, there should be some kind of yellow/clearish round button/switch that has a hose coming from it. This is a vacuum dump switch for the cruise control. Push it towards the firewall as much as you can until the button side hits the brake pedal. This switch cuts the cruise control whenever the brakes are pressed, and it'll help resist the urge to pull the pedal back up with your foot, because it'll give you some resistance.

 

none of that probably made any sense.. I'm gonna have to go get pics.

[GutlessSupreme]

here's A pic for now.. until I can go out and get one of the actual switch.

 

 

cylinder switch button thing = cruise vacuum dump switch

[SleeperRed90TGp]

The other switch with the vaccum line is the cruse control vaccum dump.

 

All I had to do to adjust mine was depress the brake as far as it would go,

pull down on the switch set lever(there should be a click)release the lever and let the pedal up. Might have to do this a couple times. If it won't set after a few tries it's probably a broken switch. $15 and a bunch of frustration.

 

Bend a coat hanger and hang it on the lever, makes it alot easier. Hard to depress the pedal when your on your back trying to reach the lever.

 

Jud

[samiamryan]

Wow! Thanks for the help, ill print this up and try to tackle it this weekend. You rock. Ill let ya know ir it works.

P.S. The dirt track thing rocks

[GutlessSupreme]

The other switch with the vaccum line is the cruse control vaccum dump.

 

thank you

 

These should help:

 

 

 

the "proper" way to do this is just pull the metal tab and push the pedal to the floor while doing so, but I never got that way to work right. by pulling out the metal tab and sliding down the inside switch mechanism from the side slit, I've found it works every single time.

 

btw, don't expect the metal tab to move much. you probably won't notice that it actually came out any - only needs to move out like a millimeter so that some metal prongs on the inside come completely off of some gear teeth.