Jake Brake information?

On this '88 Peterbilt we just got finished up(for hauling water/fertilizer), the jake brake isnt working. I did some reading on the net, and talked to a local diesel mechanic, and he told me where to start troubleshooting.

The Jake Brake switch on the dash has 3 positions, lo-off-hi. The local mechanic told me first to see if I had power going to the buffer switch on the motor. I checked that, and no power. He told me then to check the clutch switch, as they sometimes go bad, and if it wasnt working to just cut the wire and bypass the clutch switch. Well upon looking the clutch switch was apparantly working, as I could hear it "click" if I reached up and moved the plastic rod/spring attached to it. But, when the clutch pedal was depressed, it never even touched the switch. I couldnt see where to adjust it, so just went ahead and cut the wire, spliced it together, and went on. Still no power, plus the wire coming out of the clutch switch was just hanging loose. I know it should go to the switch on the dash, but couldnt see the other hanging around anywhere.

Now, my questions. Since I have no power coming from the fuse box down to the buffer switch, can I just pick up a hot wire coming out of the fuse box to supply power, or does it have to be on a separate circuit?

Also, will I be ok with the clutch switch bypassed, or is that a major "no no"?

Since the wire was broke coming from the clutch switch that goes up into the dash switch, I would just need to run a wire up to the dash switch?

I looked at the dash switch, there are two terminals on the back, one has one wire going to the connection, the other is a wider terminal, with either 2 or 3 wires going into the connector. Am I safe to assume the one wire terminal is the one I need to supply power to?

Hope you can supply some answers to my questions. I could probably take this to the local mechanic and have him fix the whole thing for less than $100, but I get dang mad if I have to take something in for repair that I feel like I should be able to "attempt" to fix! Now, if I do all the appropriate wiring and it still doesnt work, THEN I will gladly take it to the professional, but would like to try my best first.
thanks,
coadman

 

Here is some info I found on the web. On the switch on the dash, can I just apply power to the "hot" terminal, start the motor, then flip the switch to see if the jake brakes work? This would be bypassing the clutch switch, and buffer switch. If I could do this, and find out the jake brakes are working, then I could fix the wiring from the jake brake dash switch, backwards through the system. This picture pretty well diagrams the way it looks as if mine is wired up.
thanks,
coadman

 

Got my jake brake working! Had to rewire the system, but it does work now. I did bypass the clutch switch, although I may wire it back into the system later on. I wasnt sure on the clutch switch, if the clutch pedal had to be in contact with the switch, then when the clutch is depressed, it trips the switch? Anyway, when I manually move the clutch switch, it clicks, so I assume it is good. But, it was quite aways from the clutch pedal, and I dont think would ever get tripped. I didnt look to see how hard it would be to adjust it, as I wasnt sure the proximity it needed to be?
thanks for the assistance!
coadman

 

Your welcome. Got mine working, but bypassed the clutch switch. As long as my son and I know the clutch switch isnt connected, we get by fine.