Parking brake warning light
 

Cluster was looking a little dark and it turns out several bulbs were burnt out. So I ordered up a new set of #57 instrument bulbs.

Noticed one wire was missing a bulb and hanging down out of the cluster. So I put in a bulb and it stays on all the time with the key on again. It's the parking brake warning light. It seems the pedal isn't staying up all the way to turn it off, so the PO must have disconnected it.

I need to climb under the car to see if it needs an adjustment or is missing the spring. Time to get dirty again.

If it's unplugged it shouldn't be on. The wire is grounding out somewhere if it's on. Conversely it's the same light for the porportioning valve, so either unplug the wire on it or check it for grounding out. If it's on because the porportioning valve, then you may have a real brake issue.

61-63 Tempest's dont have any porportioning valves.

Chris,,, Check the park brake switch on the park brake pedal under the left side of the dash. May be broken, loose or out of adjustment.

Light goes off if I fully lift up the parking brake pedal by hand. So i think the parking brake is out of adjustment or is missing a return spring. Workshop Manual shows a return spring near the adjuster. Mine might be missing.

Like Keith said. There is an adjustment slot in the bracket of the brake switch. Loosen the one screw and adjust the switch towards the brake lever.

Thanks guys, I will be sure to check that first. Pedal is low (activating the high beams when pushed), so likely needs an adjustment undercar also.

Just looked. There is no adjustment possible on the switch, just a screw on the bottom and locating tab on top. I believe I found the problem though... the return spring on the pedal mechanism looks broken. I will post a picture.

There is a hard wire at the top which looks like belonged to a spring.
Am looking to get an idea of the original size, length & attachment point so I can rig up a replacement.

Can anyone take a peek under their '62? In the above photo, 12 o'clock, you can see a broken spring wire. I need to know where that spring would have connected to.

Chris,,,I dont see a broken spring wire. The spring in the top left corner is connected to the park brake release lever. Dont see anything else wrong. Looks just like both of mine here at the house.

Spring wire
 

The spring puts tension on the piece that engages with the rachet teeth. I took a picture with a small mirror above parking brake so you could see how it attaches. The spring wire on yours should be tucked behind metal tab at top of parking brake. It might not be broken and just out of place. My parking brake light switch has a small slot that screw goes thru and is adjustable.

Awesome guys. I was trying to figure out how on earth you took that angle, then I read you used a mirror. Well done. Will check it this week and report back. Thanks.

That tip worked great. I slipped the spring wire back in place and it is racheting! Now, I need to adjust something else so the lever comes up high enough to touch the switch.

I was able to adjust the switch but it is at the maximum range of adjustment now.

All of the return tension at the emergency brake pedal comes from the cable(s). Inside of both rear brakes on the backing plate(s) are the cables connected to one of the brake shoes and each cable has a built-in return spring. It is not possible to replace those springs as they are wrapped very tightly around the cable.

50 year old old cables are always rusted; then they will bind and stick, especially the forward-most one inside the sheathing. You can try to spray them with WD40 but then the rust comes back. The only real cure is to replace the cables. Sometimes you can find them on ebay. There were several aftermarket manufacturers of parking brake cables in the mid to late 1960s for all kinds of early 1960s cars. Mine came in a green box. The brand name was EIS. Their brand symbol are large capitol letters EIS inside of a stop sign shaped drawing.

At this point GM NOS replacement cables might be impossible to find.

Thanks Pete, I hadn't thought of that. It's a rust free car but I think the spring tension is just worn out. The cable ferrule has about a half inch gap between it and the lever, so I thought of trying to take it up at the adjuster first.

Once when I thought I would never find new cables, I removed both rear cables and extended them out of one end of the sheathing as far as they would go and glass beaded off the rust. Then I ran the cable out the other end and did the same thing. Afterwards a light coating of white grease and they did work a lot better for about a year or so.

Last year when I needed a new rear cable I called In-Line Tube. I sent in my original cable, they reproduced it exactly as original. I think it was like 99.00 or so. They can make them from reguler steel or stainless steel.

Am finally coming back to this project. Was it easy to R&R the cable?

So far, removing the rear drums is a major PITA as they seem stuck on.

I've determined these cables are the reason why the pedal doesn't stay up.
Springs are just too worn to provide enough tension.

Return spring
 

It is the parking brake cable return spring that keeps pedal up. It attaches through hole at end of front cable and to a small bracket attached to transmission. This spring should keep parking brake pedal in up position even without rear cable attached.

Found the solution. Tightened up the cable adjuster in back and needed to lube up the cable as it was sticking too much for even the big spring tension to overcome. No hanging pedal and no light anymore!