Stop light tell-tale light?

[daddyoften]

My next "have to" is to figure out my brake light problem. With the key off my brake light is off and will come on with brake pressure. When I turn the key on the tell-tale "stop light"comes on along with the brake lights. The manual says if a tail light is burned out the tell-tale won't come on... I have aftermarket tail lights and only one on each side hooked up right now. Is my problem something to do with the "sensing" system and it thinks there are brunt out lights?
Thank you,
Eric

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[RJ]

Eric -

Does the "stop light" tell-tale go out when you release the parking brake?

With the parking brake released, does it come back on when you step on the service brake pedal?

Does it come back on when you set the parking brake?

If you answered "yes" to all three questions, then the tell-tale is working properly.

If the tell-tale flashes and goes out when you step on the service brake, then you've got a brake light out - UNLESS you've installed LED bulbs.  Then the tell-tale won't work, because the LEDs don't draw enough current to activate the tell-tale.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[eagle19952]

but if you put an incandescent bulb anywhere in the circuit it should return to normal...i think

[dbldragon]

 Our couch was converted to leds and have very small resisters on each one ,tell-tale  works as it should.

  Chuck

[chessie4905]

Wonder if tell tale was changed to led also; would it work then?

[daddyoften]

No, it stays on all the time as so does the brake lights. The lights were not hooked up yet in the conversion, I just temporarily hooked up a few lights in the back to drive it home. It has a fiberglass cap and engine door with aftermarket lights.

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[bevans6]

It sounds to me like your tell-tale is working correctly - it comes on when the brake lights are on.  I would move on to figuring out why your brake lights are always on.  On my bus the brake lights are on if the parking brake is on, fwiw.  I have LED brake lights and the tell tale doesn't work anymore, but I figured out a way to eliminate the relay and get it to work again, just never did it.

Brian

[daddyoften]

Interesting to know about the brake lights on with the parking brake.  I guess I haven't tried that.  Once I flip the ignition switch to on the Stop lamp is on and won't go out with the engine off, running, parking brake released, on.  It's always on until I shut the ignition switch off.  Most of the time I'm by my self but I'll block the wheels and release the park brake and see if the brake lights go out.  I don't really care about a brake light out tell-tale light.  I will do walk arounds to figure out if the lights are working or not.   I've seen rigs before that if you have low brake pressure the brake lights stay on.  I wonder if there is another pressure sensor somewhere that's faulty and recognizing air pressure.  I hooked a volt meter up to the switch on the pedal it seems to be working ok.  It's only when I turn the ignition on that they come on and stay on.
Eric

[scott332]

On my bus the tell tale lights up when the brake lights are lit up. My brake light switch became bad a couple of years after I bought the bus. The lights would always stay on for the first hour while driving, then start working correctly. The only way I knew was because of the tell tale light.  It turned out the brake light switch was bad, I installed a new switch and all was well again.

[Oonrahnjay]

Interesting to know about the brake lights on with the parking brake.  I guess I haven't tried that.  Once I flip the ignition switch to on the Stop lamp is on and won't go out with the engine off, running, parking brake released, on.  It's always on until I shut the ignition switch off. ...

      On my bus, the license plate light is wired direct to the battery switch.  Anytime the master batt switch is on, the license plate light is on.  The tell me that it's made that way so that they can look down the line of buses stored for the night and see if any nim-wit has left the switch on after it was parked.  But my bus was made in England so it's weird in lots of ways.