Brake lights stay on

I just changed the brake cylinders in the rear because they were leaking and they work great now. But I noticed that evening the brake lights stay on and my lenses are starting to melt. If I pull back on the brake pedal hard the lights will go out. Can i assume the brake light switch is bad or is there something else to check first.Thanks

Sounds like it maybe "residual pressure". this may be caused by a difference in the stroke used in the new master cylinder.....

Someone double check me on this, I believe there should be between 1/32 and 1/16 inch slop between the end of the push rod and the seat in the cylinder when the pedal is in it's at rest position...This is what I would check first....

Good luck....

Excuse me I meant the rear wheel cylinders. I looked through my bug repair books and I don't see where I can make an adjustment between the brake pedal and master cylinder so I'll keep looking.

The push rod is adjustable between the pedal assembly and the master cylinder. There is an 11 or 12mm lock nut on the shaft...loosen the lock nut and shorten the shaft untill you have about 1/8" travel before the master cylnder starts to actuate. This adjustment is called out as a "do not adjust" in some manuals but is a "must adjust" when changing some brake parts....

Best description for the "do not adjust" brake rod is to have just enough free play for it to "click" between the fully returned pedal position and where it begins to actuate the master cylinder. Always replace the brake light switch, inexpensive @ $3.00.

Yeah, I LOVE those "Do not adjust" places in the service manuals...

Like we're easily going to find someone around locally, these days, who would know how to adjust a "do not adjust" part....

And when was the last time you saw a late '60's VW Beetle tooling around town??

It's a good thing we have these web sites to help us all through fixing these little cars!!

gn

Sounds like the brakes havent been bled fully to me.

The mounting bolts were not fully tight and there was some slight movement of the pedal assembly so now that I've tightened them while in a pulled back position the problem is solved. The lenses were $10 ea at Vintage. Thanks for the tip of "looking at what I can see".