Front brake not activating brake light properly

When I pull the brake lever a bit, the brake light goes on, then if I continue pulling it goes off. I can't find anything about adjusting brake light sensitivity for the brake lever, only on the brake pedal (which works the brake light fine)

Is there some sort of mechanical adjustment that can be made on the brake lever or is it an electrical gremlin?

[rictus01]

No it's a spring loaded switch under the lever pivot, if the switch has lost one of the two mounting screws then it some times moves, which could be the case here?

one of the connections need pushing back on?

Or perhaps need a replacement about £4

Cheers Mark

Remove the switch and give it a good blasting with WD40. Did the trick for me when I had exactly the same 'symptoms' as you!

Sounds like a dirty contact. Probably simplest to replace it but I seem to remember embee taking his apart and cleaning it, so could be worth a go.

[embee]

Had exactly the same thing.

The way the switch works is that the contacts are made as the button is pushed, and then the contacts slide slightly due to the way they are mounted on a spring leaf. The idea is that the contacts are self cleaning to some extent due to this sliding action, but what happened to mine was that some dirt had accumulated at the contact point and had been pushed towards the end, so when it first touched it made good electrical contact but then slid onto the dirty part and the circuit was broken.

The switches are not really meant to come apart, but will if you are careful. There are 3 (IIRC) small plastic pins which are melted over to hold the 2 halves of the body together. Carefully insert a blade into the joint next to the pins and prise them apart so the end pops off the pin and you can open it up to clean it.

Alternatively (and much easier) is to follow the "dousing in WD40" advice above. It'll probably do the trick. Contact cleaner would be ideal, but it's not that critical.

If all else fails, new ones are not bank-breakers.

Excellent - I've blasted it with WD40 this morning. It's probably dirty contacts - I had more of a play with the lever and the brake light can come on and go off a few times as the lever is pulled and released. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it gets better or worse after the WD40. Cheers guys.