<VV> 3rd brake light

[Dave Thompson]

Bill,
Your logic is very sound. I never thought of it that way. You are right. It
is after all a "Safety Device". After Christmas, when I get back to the
project, I will reconsider a wire from the switch rather than a switching
module in the back.

Dave Thompson

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris & Bill Strickland [mailto:lechevrier at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 3:07 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> 3rd brake light


>"I knew before I sent the question in the first place that I could run a
wire
>from the brake light switch to the 3rd brake lamp. I wanted to do it more
>"high tech". I also didn't want the lamp to blink with the turn signals."
>
>If you run a wire from the brake light switch the 3rd brake light will not
flash with the turn signals. The extra wire to the brake light switch is how
GM did it from '86 & on.
>

Since the third brake light is a "safety device", I have always felt the 
direct wire from the brake light switch to be the most reliable way of 
powering this third light -- not the most tricky, nor the most 
elaborate, but the most reliable, ie, the safest, which sounds 
reasonable for a "safety device".   The less stuff in the circuit, the 
less stuff there is to fail, even though the components under discussion 
are generally more relibale than actual brakes on the car, electical 
failures are most common at the connections to additional components.

I've always wired the third brake light direct from the switch, even 
though some of these custom hot rods had other "tricky" stuff elsewhere 
in the electrics.

Bill Strickland