1967 Continental Power Window Issues

Hi, Bill!
We’re having a problem with a customer’s ’67 Continental power windows, which I’m hoping you can help with, if you’d be so kind.
We are an independent automobile repair facility and our customer owns more than one of these cars.
Our issue was originally with the Power Window Bypass Switch – the only way to get the windows up or down was to place the switch in the “Bypass” position, then the windows (this is a two door vehicle) would go up and down as designed.
What we found was that the coil in the Window Safety Relay was not getting ignition power with the key on, so there was no power out from the relay to the window switches.
After providing power from the ignition switch accessory terminal to the Safety relay coil, as shown in the schematic for the circuit, the windows then worked as designed. The Window Bypass switch has power with the key off and will allow the windows to go up and down when placed in the Bypass position, and when the ignition is placed in the run position, the windows work fine using the switches designed for that purpose.
The problem now is that when the ignition is on (accessory/run position), the stop lamps are also on constantly and of course do not work when applying the brake pedal. Removing the ignition accessory power feed to the Window Safety Relay Coil eliminates that problem and the stop lamps then work properly, but the windows then return to the original condition and the reason for the customer’s complaint – that is they will only operate with the Bypass Switch in the Bypass position.
We can find no correlation between any of the window circuits and the stop lamp circuits and have no idea why this might be occurring. The stop lamp switch has battery power on one leg at all times as designed, but there is power on the stop lamp feed circuit (at the stop lamp switch) with the Window Safety Relay powered up via the Ignition Accessory Terminal.
Any thoughts you have on this condition would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your time,
Joe Hood
President, Hood’s Automotive and Towing
Bridgeton, Mo.
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Hello Joe –
Welcome to the blog. Your description of the issue is extremely well written and complete. The problem that you describe is however a new and strange one to us so therefore I believe that there is a short circuit between two wires that has developed or more likely that a previous owner or shop has inadvertently caused by crossing some wires to cause the stop light circuit to wrongly receive power from the Safety Relay coil feed circuit. The relay coil is fed from the ign. switch to the fuse box and through a 14 amp fuse to the safety relay coil. I agree with you that there should be no relation between the two circuits so I can only recommend at this time that the original relay circuit wiring harness and all of its connectors be very carefully inspected first for the presence of a strange unwanted addition or jumper wire. We have seen many times wiring that has been altered to satisfy some circuit that is being serviced but has upset another circuit in another section. Please keep me posted Joe with any new information so that we can proceed further advice if necessary.
Sincerely,
Bill