Passenger brake light

[Kuruton]

Quick question! On my '73 challenger, all lights work except the passenger brake light won't brighten with brakes applied. Both sides light up with headlights on, but the passenger side doesn't light up with braking. Swapped the bulbs, recrimped questionable connectors in the trunk, etc and still nothing.

Also, wiring diagrams show these as 2 wire per, but I have 3. Looking for any advice, thanks

 

[Challenger RTA]

I'll take a quick stab at this. I would guess it would be the socket or mounting area is corroded. Sometimes it looks ok but clean it up. The socket can be rusted inside. The 3rd wire might be a ground. Cant see it from here.

 

[Kuruton]

I'll take a quick stab at this. I would guess it would be the socket or mounting area is corroded. Sometimes it looks ok but clean it up. The socket can be rusted inside. The 3rd wire might be a ground. Cant see it from here.

I'll give that a try! Its weird because with the headlights on, it still wont light up unless ylu insert it into the housing. So i assume that 3rd wire is not connected or maybe not a ground?

Also there was 2 Haha sorry for lack of pictures. Spent an hour or 2 messing with it until it got dark and came inside to ask.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

The brake lights are separated in the turn signal switch so they can flash , check at the bottom of the column to see if you have power there , if not the problem is in the TS switch

 

[Challenger RTA]

Is this what it looks like? That's a 1157 socket.

 

[heminut]

Have you checked the brake light wire with a test light to see if you're even getting power back there?

 

[PLUM_72]

As mentioned if you checked for power back at the socket and have 12v, it may be a ground issue. For extra insurance, I soldered a ground wire to socket bases on my Challenger rather than hoping to achieve the ground from the friction fit housing. I also upgraded the 1157 bulb to a 2357 bulb for brighter lights.

 

[sixpactogo]

I'm gonna say the problem is in your turn signal circuit. When I had that problem, it was because of my turn signal lever being too tight and would not travel all the way back to center. Check to see if it happens that when you take a left turn and your canceler doesn't center up. In that case, your left brake light won't light. My problem arose when I removed my steering column for paint and refreshing. I got too much paint in the mounting hole for my turn signal lever. It was not letting the lever go back to center and every time I turned either left or right, I lost my brake light on that particular side until I manually moved the lever. Once I cleaned the paint out of that hole, I was back in business. May not be your problem but it is possible. Good luck getting it fixed.