Brake lights staying on with smell of burning!!!

[horizontal kipper]

Just pulled up on drive got out van and wife says you forgot to turn lights off. Brake lights were on, pressed pedal down and they went out then came back on again now i could smell burning cut power to both batteries then had a sniff round. Removed instrument pod cover and it smelt stronger there but couldn't see any smoke or feel owt hot anywhere. Would the cause be the brake light switch? Going for a better look in daylight but hoping someone may have a better idea of the problem. Van is a 1980 registered 2ltr westy Joker.

Thanks Paul

[Mocki]

unlikely its the switch, it is on the neg line.
the brake light fuse should have popped before anything melted.

[a1winchester]

Just a wild stab in the dark, but do you have a rear wiper motor?
I managed to burn mine out when I had the bike rack on the back, and inadvertently turned the rear wiper on.
That smelt a bit! You won't see or feel anything because it's behind the rear door card.

[horizontal kipper]

Don't have a rear wiper. Probably going to be saturday morning before i get chance to have a look now.

[Mocki]

Just a wild stab in the dark, but do you have a rear wiper motor?
I managed to burn mine out when I had the bike rack on the back, and inadvertently turned the rear wiper on.
That smelt a bit! You won't see or feel anything because it's behind the rear door card.

Yep, I did for mine the same way , had two body boards tween the bike rack and the back window last year in Ireland and It was pissing down on the motorway coming up from Dublin and I must have inadvertently switched the rear wash wipe on..... It stank and now it don't wipe..... One day I'll get round to fitting the spare I have on the shelf ....maybe

[horizontal kipper]

Had a look this morning my van has two three pin switches on the master cylinder. The one nearest the steering wheel looks fine the other the plastic on the switch has melted. There is no sign of damage to the wires or the white round bit that fits onto the switch. No sign of damage behind the fuse box or the 8A fuses. Is this common for a switch to fail this way leaving the brake lights on instead of off?

[Mocki]

i have never seen nor heard of it ......

[horizontal kipper]

Had a look in old posts over on the samba.com, looks like its quite a common fault.