Ok, here is the problem. My brake lights don't work! My turn signals and hazards both work perfectly. The recent work I have done includes a computer swap, and lots of wiring work under the hood. I never touched the wiring under the stearing column. I checked the the voltage at the orange wire at the switch and there was 12v.... then I jumped the hot wire with the other blue wire. and checked the wiring at the 3rd brake light... it's hot?! but it is not on? My car didnt originally have the 3rd light btw, so it is spliced into the wire going to the tails. Am I missing somthing? If the wire is hot shouldnt the light be on?! I removed my cruise control as well if that could have anything to do with it.

 

Think of how your rear lights work, like this:

They have 3 possible sources of 12V. 1, the brake light switch; 2, the turn signal switch, which lifts the ONE side of the car's rear lights off of the brake light switch supply, and connects it to the TS flasher while leaving the other side connected to the BL sw; and 3, the hazard switch, which lifts ALL 4 corners of lights off of their normal supplies, and connects them to the hazard flasher.

There's no blue wire in the brake light ckt that I know of. Sounds like you're looking at the wrong switch. GM has used white for that for as long as I can remember, which is back into the 50s and before.

The brake light feed has its own fuse. I assume you checked it?

The BL switch should send 12V from the orange wire to the white wire, which should carry it into the steering column to the TS switch, which then does its thing.

Therefore, if the 12V is making it past the BL switch, the problem has to be in the column; either the white wire, or the TS switch.