Emergency Brake Light wiring to early 50s fuse panel?

Guys. Bought a used original emergency brake light set-up off of eBay recently. This is one of the red jewel under dash mounted units that has a plunger switch that comes in contact with the ebrake ratchet. When engaged, the light comes on as a reminder that the brake is on...Now big question is, what's the best way to connect it to the fuse panel on a '50 Buick? I have the bracket and original plunger switch as well.

I think I might have seen an NOS one listed at some point that still had the directions, I'll see if I can find it and try to read the directions off the photo in the listing, but if anyone has one of these units on their car, let me know how you've wired it. The mounting bracket, should match-up, or come pretty close to the holes that are already in place under the front edge of the dash panel.

Thanks,

If you have the shop manual for the car, check the wiring diagrams section and it would indicate exactly where this is connected for those cars that would have it. Otherwise, you don't want it on something that's "hot" all the time (run battery down) but on something that's hot with ignition on. In my '51, I added the electric supplemental fuel pump to the "reverse light" circuit - because it's hot only with the ignition on, and the reverse light isn't something that would be often on at the same time as the pump. I just pulled out the bullet connector for the reverse light, fed the bare end of the wire for the fuel pump in the socket, and pushed the bullet connector back in, trapping the wire. Maybe not the cleanest/best "permanent" solution, but it works. The fuses on the panel are labeled.

Good deal. I'll check my wiring diagram. As it was an option, not sure if shows up on there. I may try to see if someone has a more updated wiring diagram as I don't think this option was really introduced until a couple years later. Eckler's/Classic Chevy.com lists a modern interpretation of it, and as you said, they suggest wiring it to something only live with the ignition. I'll take a look at my fuse panel, as I think it does have couple empty spots for accessories, or worse comes to worse, splice it someplace after the ignition.

One weird thing we recently figured out is that the my car will not start (won't even attempt to crank or give power to the instruments-fuel gauge, oil pressure, etc.) without the Ignition Wire that runs to the headlight switch in place.

I looked over everything I could find on the emergency brake light in my 1952 service manual. I've included the service manual section on it (in two photos) and the shot I snagged off of EBAY of original installation instructions. You can click on the photos to open them, then click them again when they open, right click on them, and save photo. Then you can open them up on your computer and zoom in so you can see better. I looked at all the wiring diagrams and did not see this light on them. Maybe because it was an option? Anyway, I thought that headlight switch/ignition switch relationship was weird too. If you study the wiring diagrams, it looks like the ignition switch gets its power FROM the headlight switch. Strange huh? As a matter of fact, it looks like the headlight switch is pretty much a big power distribution block. Weird that they would run main power to the headlight switch. I went through all of this back when I was trying to get everything wired up safely. Good luck with your light and hope this helps.

Hey Robert! Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for. Seems like the only thing I'm missing then is the referenced 6v fuse holder. I'll see what I can come up with locally. Based on the drawings, I have all of the other parts. I'm wondering if I can reach out to the eBay seller and see if he's still got the fuse holder dangling from his dash. He's listed a bunch of Buick stuff lately. If anyone needs the actual ebrake assembly, I've got the one that came with this switch assembly and I don't plan on using it.

Yes, that headlight switch, of course, is a specific unit to the '50 thru '52 cars...Buick only for that matter! I got a pretty crusty replacement one off eBay recently. I'm in the process of cleaning that one up after my overzealous cleaning managed to ruin the rheostat coil on my original one. If the replacement doesn't work, due to condition of screw terminals, I'm going to make one last attempt of repairing mine by removing the entire ceramic rheostat component from the frame of the replacement and putting it into my switch (condition is WAY better). The only reason mine can't be repaired is once that coil is broken, there's pretty much no way to re-attach it. I tried putting a new loop in the end and attaching it back to the ceramic with a new rivet, but as soon as voltage hit it, the coil burnt right off the rivet again.