Robert,
The buttons work or not. The problem is the covers crumble after years.
Your hydralic switch on the end of you master cylinder may be the problem. Or weak return spring on the brake pedal, is causing hydralic pressure to trip out that switch.
If your switch is red plastic on top it needs to be changed. The red ones are the faulty ones that started fires.
If you know how to use a VOM. You can test the switch funtion. It has 12vdc to ground until the pedal is pushed.
You may have bad steering switches, though. Not cleanable, without tearing up the covers. Or there also is a wiring harness issue in the gen1 steering column. That happens mostly the lower the steering column is lowered. Eventualy the harness causes many problems. Ford made it too short.
Info overload, hope not.......:banghead: