Look Ma, no brakes!

The day after getting Betty home I drove her to my mechanic for an inspection. We changed the oil, lubed everything that could be and checked the brakes, which looked OK. After getting home and driving it around for another day or two I was reminded that the brake lights didn't work. Since the turn signals did work, and those use the same bulb, I started tracing the problem back to the brake pedal, where there should have been a pressure switch to turn the lights on.

Laying in the floorboard and looking under the dash I found a mess. Not only was the switch just hanging there, but the brake pedal arm was barely connected to the push-rod that goes through the firewall into the master cylinder. In the picture, the switch is the little black box with the blue and red connectors attached:

Just above the switch there's a connection point between the brake pedal arm and the push rod. There should be a bushing in there, plus some spacers and finally a cotter pin holding it all together. On Betty, there was no pin and the connection was loose and wobbly. In fact, had the push-rod slipped off the connection while I was driving (easy to do with no cotter pin), I would have been left with no brakes at all!

Glad I caught that before something bad happened. I don't have the bushing or spacers yet (working on it), and I've just got a small finishing nail stuck through and bent to hold it in place, but at least the brake lights work and I'm not too concerned about a brake failure anymore.

It's becoming clearer that with an old car like this, it's not good enough to take it to your mechanic and have it "checked", you really have to become an expert on the car yourself.