Little $250 69 Valiant

Ohhh, solved another big issue I have had forever! So my pass. side brake light and turn signal. have not worked for as long as I can remember (keep in mind my car hasn't been driven regularly since 1997).
So, because its going to get inspected today, I had to make sure it was fixed in order to pass. Well long story short, I tested the wires for power and they led me to the turn signal switch. I just replaced it and figured there is no way it can be the problem. Well I was wrong, but here is why, they switch I bought was apparently a cheapo version, so I actually had to use part of my original. The part with the contacts. So I checked and had a good voltage TO the switch, but not coming out of it. I pulled the top piece off of the switch (which is the part that returns it after you turn the steering wheel) and realized I never cleaned the contacts. So that's where I figured PART of the problem was. I cleaned them up and tried it.
It helped but didn't completely fix it. (intermittent) Now I realized that when I held pressure on the contact areas, it was fixed. So I pulled the top piece back off, bent the spring parts so they had more tension on them and Eureka! It works great!
Something I found odd... The brake lights will not work if this stuff is not in working condition.
Just thought I'd share!