Brake lights not working...

[clineco]

I was hoping somebody could help me out on this. Here's what I have...

My red wire which goes to the brake switch has power, but when I connect the red to the red/black stripe, I no longer get power in the circuit. I'm not an electrician so I'm not sure what would cause this to happen. My next step is to jump the turn signal switch directly to the brake lights to see if I can get them to light up.

Any suggestions?

[basketcase0302]

"clineco" I was hoping somebody could help me out on this. Here's what I have...

My red wire which goes to the brake switch has power, but when I connect the red to the red/black stripe, I no longer get power in the circuit. I'm not an electrician so I'm not sure what would cause this to happen. My next step is to jump the turn signal switch directly to the brake lights to see if I can get them to light up.

Any suggestions?

What year truck?
You'll need to at least be able to read a simple test light, (a voltage meter is really no different and most of us here can easily describe how to use one of those) to troubleshoot.
Here are the wiring diagrams. There are many things that can cause them to not work. Make sure the brake light housings themselves are properly mounted, (that's how the sockets get their ground) / make sure your cab ground strap, (from intake to cab) is intact to start with.
Shorting wires is a good way to ground a hot circuit causing even more issues from blowing fuses to burning up wiring and not recommended if you can avoid it.

http://www.fordification.com/tech/schematics_h.htm

[clineco]

Tracked it down. Ended up being a corroded fuse clip. Hopefully this can help somebody in the future.