Slow-LG4

Hello, maybe someone can help me. My car was hit in the rear approx 2 months ago. Since that time, I have replaced the taillight assembly and the bulbs inside. Now, my tails go on when the headlights are on, but I have no brake lights, and my left turn signal is flashing very slowly. I know when I replaced the bulbs, I scraped some brownish compound out of the socket thinking it was some sort of corrosion buildup. Someone recently told me that it is a type of grease put there to conduct electricity.
I have since checked the terminals of my brake light switch with a test light, I have a red power wire constantly going into the switch and it lights, and coming out, the testlight lights when I apply the pedal at both white wires exiting the swtch. I would assume that the switch should be good then. In the back at the actual wiring harness in the side of the trunk, I have applied the testlight to see if power is going through sucessfully. This is hard because somewhere along the line, the wiring colors have switched. I plan on possibly getting a new socket where the bulbs install and splicing it in.
My question is this.

1. Could the switch be giving me positive test results and STILL be bad?

2. Could scraping alot of that brown compound out of the socket have caused a bad connection now?

3. Is it really that hard to rewire a connection directly from the switch to the rear brakelights? Especially being that colors switch three times?

I know this is a long message, but I have been driving without brake light for a month now, and am getting tired of pulling out the headlights everytime I want to stop at a light or stop sign.


Also, when my headlights are on at night, the turn signal goes from blinking slowly to a steady light not blinking at all. This make any sense to anyone out there?

ede

moving to eltronics board. hope they can help you