Brake light problems

ok so my brake lights arenet working. its not the bulb and im not getting power to the bulb. So i checked the switch. Im not getting power to the swith either. anyone where else I can look for the problem?

Please, always start a thread with Year/Engine/Transmission, any other important information.

sry
1991
4.0
auto

before i bought the jeep the brake lights worked. but when i picked it up they didnt. I found out im not getting power to teh switch. does anyone have a chiltons manual to se if therea fusebale link or anything between the switch and the powersource? otherwise i may make my own power source.

Search the net or look at the fuse box and find out which fuse is bad. Could be a few different ones. At least start there.

Any evidence of mud splashing on or near the big bulkhead connector under the hood (driver's side, by brake booster. Connects to the back of the fuse box under the dashboard)?

Could be that your connector might be getting wierd, like the one on my '92 did - first the reverse and brake lights stopped working, then the entire truck would shut down and require some wiggling on that connector to get things going again. In my case, I had two wires completely rusted away and a couple more iffy ones.

Hopefully that's not your problem. But if it is, try to find a similar year rig in the junkyard and cut the connector off of it (leave long tails on the wires - all the way back to where it branches off the main trunk running to the computer). I used heat-shrink crimp splices to put mine in, and it works really good now. I do need to glop up the back of the connector with dielectric grease to protect it, though).

thanks for the ideas. I will look at those tonight. no fused in the fuse panel are bad. I haven't checked the fuse box under the hood.

Willy Mo said:

ok so my brake lights arenet working. its not the bulb and im not getting power to the bulb. So i checked the switch. Im not getting power to the swith either. anyone where else I can look for the problem?

Click to expand...

I don't have my FSM here at work, but MOST brake light system have a constant 12vdc to the lamp and the switch just closes the circuit for the ground. The 12vdc supply is fused but should share a common circuit with other lamps in the dash. Are any other dash lamps inoperative?

teh reverse light s havent worked. and the blinkers dont work but they did work before i swapped the columns. so i am assuming its the switch for the blinkers.

What's not working? The brake light in the dash? or The stop lights in the back of the XJ?

The issue I described in the above post is for brake lights. Since you changed the steering column, I now believe your talking stop lights inoperative. OK. Yes the problem can be with the steering column. The stop light circuit runs through the column on vehicles that the stop lights and turn lights (and hazards) share the same bulb. Did you use a 91XJ column? The contacts in the switch could be bad, corroded, etc.

no the column i swaped was out of a 93 xj.all the connectors were the samn.
and yes now that the columns have been swapped teh blinkers teh brake lights (in the rear) and the hazards dont work.