It would greatly help in the diagnosis of problems if you could give as much info as possible about your car. I'll list my car to start. Year : 1986 Model : GTS Mileage : 266,xxxK so i am trying to get my popup headlights to function properly. they will go down but the will no go up, i have searched this forum and have found nothing.... i have replaced motors and harness with newer 88 ST parts. if i turn the switch on they do nothing, i have to manually put them up. turn the switch down they do that with no problems. for the 85's and older i have seen people just need to replace fuse-able links. i have yet to find any. i am planing on changing the switch on Saturday to see if this helps at all. Are there any fuses, relays, switches? anything that i can check? and processes to do so? Thanks in advance. Ps, i have a list of stuff to fix but i will start with this.
so last night i picked up a haynes repair manual. gives me wiring diagrams and al, im leaning towards a retractor relay? ive looked through the interior of the car and cannot find this thing for the life of me.. any ideas where to find this? also a diagram of the fuses on the kick panel? thanks,
so the light retractor relay, i see an a/c relay down there but nothing else. just cause i cannot find it anywhere. [/QUOTE]
alright, so i found the retractor control relay and replaced it. no dice... i guess time to try making my own wire from the control box to the motors to see if there is a break... any i guess trying the switch?
found a break in the green-white wire beside the battery, 3mm of green powder. mmm. got the repaired and turned them up and they worked awesome! and then they started to flap, and flap. they did this a lot and sometimes found their place. tried replacing the retractor relay and same thing. I'm leaning towards motors? the wiring is perfect from the motors to the relay. are there contacts that should be cleaned in the motor assembly? i thought i saw a thread on it but can not seem to find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks!
I have taken motors appart before and their are contacts that can be cleaned Heres a couple of pictures I would try some of the tests listed above. I don't think opening the motors and cleaning them will help. If only 1 headlight was not working properly then I would check the motors but since both lights are doing the same thing I would guess the problem is before the motors That green & white wire may have fried your retract control relay. You probably burnt out a transistor or the IC itself before you fixed the wire
alright, so for fun tonight i decided to plug the motors in expecting them to flap. the opened right away with no problems. turned the lights to off and they went down. i went up and down about 6 times with them working, after that then they started to flap up and down. i have tried both relays and they do the same thing. in the beginning it was mostly the right side, then they both go crazy just like i am. i will try the tests tomorrow, high beam flash also worked. thank you.
I'll see if I can dig up an extra headlight motor and get some pics of how to open it and clean the contacts
Why anybody would design an external part exposed to salt and corrosion and use machine screws with philips heads is beyond me. I try to get a set of visegrips on the screw head so I can crack it loose. You might have to file the sides of the screw head a bit to get a better grip inside there are 3 contacts the yellow wire runs through a diode and connects to the inside track the blue wire runs through a diode and connects to the outside track the green wire connects to the middle track (no diode)
thank you for that. im going to clean the grease and possible metal junk up. then add dielectric grease. i sprayed penetrant on it tonight, and will do so again tomorrow morning. try taking them apart late tomorrow morning.
with all that penetrant, i was easily able to remove the covers while the motors were still attached in the car. cleaned them up and didn't change a thing. the relay clicks like mad, both of them do the same thing. is there another wire i could be missing? when down they will come up, when up they will go down. i do realize the motors only spin in one direction. maybe try another relay? the wires seem to all be in tact so i am completely at a loss. i had the left light plugged in and it popped up. waited 5 seconds then it just flapped until it stopped by itself. right side just goes crazy. I'm sad.
I'd check out the contacts in the plugs they can get pretty nasty you may even have cracked wires that yellow wire is cracked and insulation is missing where it enters the black protective tube so if other wires are similar then you may have current arching between wires inside the protective cover If the plugs are ok then your pretty much back to bad wiring or the the retract control relay the complete wiring circuit My money is still on the retract control relay you have 3 transistors (T1-T3) 2 relays R1 & R2 and an Integrated Circuit which can easilly be fried especially when you have I doubt the IC is fried because its pretty much protected by the transistors but I bet transistor 1 is smoked. but if you want to test the wiring harness some more heres more tests.
im going to have to agree with you, found a big short it the g-w wire, so im sure that toasted the box well time for a trip to the wreckers for another!
after replacing corroded wiring, repair shorts, cleaning motor contacts and replacing 2 relays. they work! thanks for the help! no moving on to replacing the drivers door harness to hopefully fix my no power locks / no courtesy lighting.