Grrr....headlight motor

Hi All,

My headlight motor on my 65 has been working great, and now it decided to not close the clams.

I checked the connections, and removed the relays to make a better ground.

Turning off the ign. and a BOING sounds..hehe. It's a BOING noise. Seems to be coming from one of the relays, but I haven't narrowed it down to which one.

Do you think the motor might have finally quit, or should I maybe look at changing out the relay(s)?

Thanks for any insight,

Buddy

Hi All,

My headlight motor on my 65 has been working great, and now it decided to not close the clams.

I checked the connections, and removed the relays to make a better ground.

Turning off the ign. and a BOING sounds..hehe. It's a BOING noise. Seems to be coming from one of the relays, but I haven't narrowed it down to which one.

Do you think the motor might have finally quit, or should I maybe look at changing out the relay(s)?

Thanks for any insight,

Buddy

Buddy, The sound is normal. Is the key in the "on" position while trying to close the clamshells? The key must be "on" if your car has the second relay located behind the battery.

Tom Mooney

Buddy, The sound is normal. Is the key in the "on" position while trying to close the clamshells? The key must be "on" if your car has the second relay located behind the battery.

Tom Mooney

Interesting! My clams open and close no matter where the ignition key is. I do see a small relay mounted by the battery. Not sure if it is the one you are talking about though.

If you have only one relay the clams will open and close with the key off or on . If you have two relays they will only close with the key on . One or two relays are mounted under the fender next to the battery .

Buddy, The sound is normal. Is the key in the "on" position while trying to close the clamshells? The key must be "on" if your car has the second relay located behind the battery.

Tom Mooney

Tom,

I do have two relays. Pull out headlight knob and clams open. Shut off h/l's clams stay open until the ign. sw. is turned on then close.

However, not working now. That BOING noise is really loud.lol

I'm hoping a ground issue or relay, instead of the motor.

I'll keep checking, and hot wire the motor straight to see if it works.....

Thanks for the replies everyone,

Buddy

Tom,

I do have two relays. Pull out headlight knob and clams open. Shut off h/l's clams stay open until the ign. sw. is turned on then close.

However, not working now. That BOING noise is really loud.lol

I'm hoping a ground issue or relay, instead of the motor.

I'll keep checking, and hot wire the motor straight to see if it works.....

Thanks for the replies everyone,

Buddy

Buddy, the easiest check to do is to unplug the two wire connector at the motor and using a test light, probe the wiring harness end of the connector and you should have one wire with voltage with the headlights on, and the other wire with voltage when the lights are turned off. If you have juice at each wire

at the appropriate time, that would indicate the motor has a problem. Be sure to do the test with the ignition turned on.

Those clamshell headlights are way cool, but I'm so glad I don't have to deal with them on my '64 lol.

Buddy, the easiest check to do is to unplug the two wire connector at the motor and using a test light, probe the wiring harness end of the connector and you should have one wire with voltage with the headlights on, and the other wire with voltage when the lights are turned off. If you have juice at each wire

at the appropriate time, that would indicate the motor has a problem. Be sure to do the test with the ignition turned on.

Well, I checked the plug going to the motor. With the ign. switch on, and the light switch pulled out, I have 12v. on one pin.

Turning off the headlights w/ the ign. sw. on, no power to the other pin....HOWEVER, when I touch the volt meter to that pin, 12 comes on and then goes to zero.....just a flash.

Maybe a relay or need to recheck the wires and plugs?

I think it's the 4 prong relay.

I would guess the 3 blade relay . You can try and clean the points ? C if you have power going to that relay . I have both relays if you need new .

Those clamshell headlights are way cool, but I'm so glad I don't have to deal with them on my '64 lol.

Yes, the hideaways on a 65 are a PITA. They should have used vacuum actuators.....my 69 GTO

has vacuum hideaways and I've never had a problem with them in 44 years of ownership. An even better

setup would have been a pivot arm where the motor pivot is located with a return spring to keep them closed,

and a cable like a parking brake cable to pull the pivot the other way to open them, with a ratchet to keep them open till you release the handle, just like the pull handle on a parking brake. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking about doing just that, utilizing my parking brake cable and parking brake pedal. I never use the

parking brake anyway, and I could have a cable made to go from the parking brake pedal directly to the pivot

on the headlight motor. If I took the gear out of the motor, the pivot should free wheel back and forth. Then

I could install a return spring on the back side of the pivot to close them and voila........headlight doors that are guaranteed to operate till hell freezes over! As a matter of fact the hideaway headlight doors on a 69 Opel

GT had a setup like that with mechanical linkage with a spring loaded pull handle. The 37 cord also

had mechanical linkage on the hideaway doors.

Well, I checked the plug going to the motor. With the ign. switch on, and the light switch pulled out, I have 12v. on one pin.

Turning off the headlights w/ the ign. sw. on, no power to the other pin....HOWEVER, when I touch the volt meter to that pin, 12 comes on and then goes to zero.....just a flash.

Maybe a relay or need to recheck the wires and plugs?

This is a classic symptom of bad contact points in a relay. Try cleaning the points, be sure you have a good ground thru the mounting screws and I suspect your problem will be solved.

Tom

This is a classic symptom of bad contact points in a relay. Try cleaning the points, be sure you have a good ground thru the mounting screws and I suspect your problem will be solved.

Tom

I'll go through the system again tomorrow and check the closing/3 prong relay points/ground.

An interesting side note though. With the motor unplugged, I could close the clams with a hot wire to the pin. I plugged the plug back in and went above the plug touching with a hot wire and they wouldn't close! It would only close when I disconnected the relay.....

Thanks everyone for the help. I'll get her tomorrow. These relays appear to be original, so If I need one I know where to go.

Buddy

Those vacuum systems can be a PITA also Buddy - just ask anyone who has had to trouble shoot '68 or '69 Riviera headlight problems !!

They are all great as long as there are no problems, one split end on a hose, and the whole headlight system is rendered almost useless, not to mention how smooth

a 430 engine runs with a leaking vacuum hose.

aaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!

This is a classic symptom of bad contact points in a relay. Try cleaning the points, be sure you have a good ground thru the mounting screws and I suspect your problem will be solved.

Tom

Well Sir, I removed the relay and took it apart and cleaned the contacts, plus the sheet metal. Didn't do the trick. Then I realized I did the 4 prong instead of the 3 prong. HOWEVER, I must say I did a great job.

Then I did the 3 prong.

Now it closes like it should......Thanks again everyone.

I will also add as a side note, just before the clams quit closing I noticed the clams weren't closing all the way. Kind of doing the winking thing. I thought it was an alignment thing again.

NOW, they close all the way.....

Best to you all,

Buddy

I like results - especially GOOD results.

Buddy,

Besides being successful, what I like is the fact that you got back to everyone who offered advice and let them know that you were successful. I think that there are way too many times that the correct advice is given, the problem is fixed, and the guy with the problem never comes back and lets everyone know what worked.

Ed

I had a similar issue that I couldn't figure out until I read this post, and the answers. I didn't know that you had to have the key on to close the clamshells if you have the aux relay. I had hot wired it to make it work all of the time. Why again did the add the relay in the first place?

My issue is the headlight motor keeps moving back and forth a tiny bit when it opens for about a minute. You can't see it unless you're looking down at the motor right after you turn the lights on. The doors don't move. Is this what is being referred to as winking ?

Anyone have a solution?

Thanks

Steve