I got the brake light switch today. Had my son step on the brake pedal....no lights I put the tester on it, juice is flowing; so I have him press the pedal again, no lights so I wiggled the light socket and it sparked whats up with that? these things ground themselves....right
That's the way they work. The bulb gets its ground through the metal shell of itself, which is touching the socket. The socket has to be contacting the metal part of the tail light, which is grounded for the light to burn.
You don't have a problem until you let the magic smoke out. Good luck! Seriously though, have you taken a volt meter and checked for voltage at the sockets at the rear? If you have power there but no light, it would definitely be a ground problem.
The sparks is just the voltage jumping to ground. You probably have a bad ground. Clean the base of the socket and tail light housing. There should also be a ground wire attached to one of the screws holding the housing to the panel. Remove it and clean it up
You can also use a temporary ground wire to test things out before taking everything apart to clean it.
thanks!!!!! Should have thought of a bad ground first, that seems to be the demon of most electrical issues
