Hi, I’m new to the forum and would appreciate your help. The brake pedal seems to stay down keeping the rear brake lights on. I was told my year did not have the the brake pedal return spring which was standard on newer models. I bought the spring online and the seller promised to send me instructions on how to install it, but never did. If anyone has experience with this I would appreciate the information. I would assume the lower half of the dashboard needs to come off to access the brake pedal, but I’m not sure how that comes off either. Thanks for your time.
This has occasionally been a problem. The switch is adjustable,which my help. Sometimes, it is the the switch itself that sticks and needs replacement. I have not yet found an after market switch that works on the GEM. Under the dash,you will find two switches. The brake light switch will have a blue/brown wire. Ignore the other switch with the blue wire.
Daniel
The brake pedal not returning is usually due to the wheel cylinders being stuck. New cylinders are relatively cheap on Ebay.
To pull the bottom shroud take out the 3 scrows on the top edge tabs and pull the shroud down and out.
The switch IS adjustable but if the pedal is not returning every time you need to repair or replace the wheel cylinders.
I was able to repair 3 of the 4 cylinders on my cart by giving them a heavy honing. I reused the same cups because I couldn’t find any new ones.
I bought the small wheel cylinder hone from Advance Auto. I had to grind the back of the hone joints and grind some off the hones themselves to make it fit in the rear wheel cylinders because of the small bore size.
On my 01 E825, I’ve occasionally had this problem as well. The pedal returns mechanically just fine to release the brakes (it’s not a problem w/ the brake cylinders) but the switch contacts stay on. The pedal seems to “bind” slightly in the last 1/16th of an inch on return and doesn’t return quite far enough to fully release the switch which controls the stoplights. On mine the switch position isn’t adjustable so that’s not an option. I’ve replaced the switch but that didn’t solve the problem (a design issue IMO).
Lifting the pedal with your foot after braking does the trick. I’ve taken to spraying the pin and pedal assembly w/ WD40 where it hinges on a maintenance basis and that reduces the friction sufficiently, allows the pedal to fully return and releases the switch.
Al
I had the same problem with my '01 e825/2. The master cylinder returned fine indicating that the wheel cylinders were working as designed, but it would catch just before the brake pedal arm would release the brake light switch. IMO this is a poor design in that the weight of the pedal is partially supported by the brake light switch when in the off position. It really needs a spring to offset the weight of the arm. What I found after dismantling the brake mounting was that the housing was extremely tight on the sides of the cylindrical part that surrounded the rod that holds the arm in the mount. I also found that both ends of that round cylinder had not been machined smooth. There were casting “edges” that did not allow the arm to move freely. I used a belt sander to smooth the ends of the cylinder down and then cleaned and oiled the inside and the retaining rod. As mentioned above It will become a part of routine maintenance.