So when I press my hatch release button the brake warning light shows up on the dash but doesn't do anything else. What could be the issue here?

Also, when I turn on my rear defroster there is a lot of clicking noises coming from the passenger dash area and it appears to put quite a draw on the electronic system because everything will go dim till I turn it off. The battery is new so that isn't the problem.

 

Try putting on the parking brake before trying to pop the hatch.

Sounds like the defogger is working fine. Your description of it is pretty much what it does. It's nothing but a giant heater; it draws an ENORMOUS amount of current. Try turning it on some morning when your back glass is covered with dew and see if it has an effect on it. You should see the dew starting to clear along each of those lines after a minute or 2.

 

My 88 does the same thing can’t figure it out even when I have the E brake on

 

Regarding the rear defroster system. Open the hatch and check the 'hold open' struts. They are used to transfer power to the rear defroster on the hatch glass.

There are (were) insulating plastic grommets on each end of the struts. If they wear through, or the wrong struts are installed, the defrost circuit gets shorted to ground. IIRC, I posted pics of these grommets on the electronics board here?

RBob.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...-trans-am.html

RBob.