94 GEO (Corolla) Weird brake light issue

[Wetzel]

Hi All
My daughter has a 94 GEO with no brake lights. Everything else on the car works fine and they just stopped working.
I started with the simple stuff and worked into it but am now stumped.

Here are the areas I have checked and found OK:
1 - Fuses
2 - Bulbs
3 - Switch at brake pedal - removed and tested OK
4 - Wire harness from where it plugs into circuit box at drivers side - I traced the red/white wire from the trunk back to a plug and then fed 12v to the wire(lights came on).
5 - I pulled all, yes all, of the fuses and relays out, swap tested those I could and reseated everything. Nothing seems bad but I didn't take any to a store for testing. As I only have an older toyota manual and not the one for this car I have no idea if the relays would even make a difference with the brake lights.
I hope some one can help me.

[TenZen]

well i take a shot and say maybe the sockets the lights go in to could be bad. im not to bright with electrical work though.

[tashirosgt]

If you can identify a place on the socket that ought to be connected to ground, run a temporary wire to ground it to the frame to check that a bad ground might be the problem. On the 90-93, the brake light circuit and the circuit that keeps the automatic transmission shift in Park until the brake is pressed share the same fuse. If you have an automatic, does that feature of the shift work? - might be the same circuit as on yours.

[Wetzel]

Hi
Thanks for looking into this for me.
The circuit for the auto trani works the way it should. and the the brake lights do work when I "hot wire them (number 4 from my initial post) so the sockets are grounded and the harness is good from the fusebox back. As an FYI -- the rear lights and the fuel pump ground to the same location.
I don't have a manual but I have to assume the fault is upstream from there. I checked the wires at the pedal brake switch and there is no voltage. Is there another fuse or fusable link in there somewhere???

Thanks again