pusher_sr

after reconditioning my 1966 headlight motors & buying new limit switches, i still can't get the motors to work. i hooked up the motors for a trial run & when i press down on the headlight switch, the battery needle drops way over to the left (-40) position. is the headlight switch "shot" or could i possibly have something hooked up wrong. any help or advice would be much appreciated. thanks in advance. ted (pusher sr)

vetsvette2002

Ted,
Fisrt:
those switches are not 'limit' switches but rather turn on /off the headlamp tattletale lamp on the das to alert you that the headlamp buckets are not full open with the headlamps ON.
Second:
Did the motors work before you reconditioned them?
If yes, did you replace the ground screw with a new longer screw?
If yes, you put the screw into the motor's field windings and time for a new motor.
If the did not work before you reconditioned them what were the problems?
Third:
To test a motor, remove it from ther car and run a test lead from the NEG battery post to the motor case. Then run test lead from the POS battery post to either one of the two terminals in the round connector - one post is to raise the other is to lower. If it spins free the motor is still good.
If you can triuble shoot it to the switch, I doubt you would be getting a high current indicastion on the ammeter. When switches go bad, they usually have a high voltage drop across the contacts of the switch (repairable) or the switch is broken and there is no path for the 12 vdc to the motor.
Need more information to help further.
Don

pusher_sr

thanks for the quick reply, don. i just checked the motors, and thank goodness they both work fine. could my problem be a faulty wire grounding things out? how do you know if your switch is no good? i'll try to check the wiring next. ted

vetsvette2002

Ted,
There are three wires at the UP/DOWN switch:

Red - feeds 12 vdc to the switch from circuit breaker above left foot vent
Yellow - 12 vdc to rotate the bucket UP
Dark Green - 12 vdc to rotate the bucket DOWN

disconnect the battery and using an Ohm meter, put one lead to ground and the other to the yellow wire, then the dark green wire. A short will show up as low resistance. You should see an open or infinite resistance in this check. If you do find it shorted, now you have to find it. It could be on either side of the dash panel (firewall). A favorite location is where the harness goes over the radiator support.

With the switch connector off of the switch, again using the ohmmeter, put one probe on the red lead's pin and the other on an other pin - either color - and operate the switch. resistance should go from an open to a short when the switch closes to operate. It should short for only one pin at a time.
Don

pusher_sr

hi don. thanks very much for your reply. i checked both headlight motors and they run fine (thank goodness). i took out the up/down switch and cleaned that (power here, also. before hooking up the motors, i checked, and have power at the connections (plugs). everything seems fine, until i hook up the motors for a trial run........and then.......when the up/down switch is activated, the dome lights dim, and the battery gauge goes to minus 40. any ideas at this point would be much appreciated. thanks in advance. ted

Subfixer

The headlight buckets aren't binding up are they? With the motors removed, the headlight buckets should be able to rotate very freely. You could also try the manual **** on each motor transmission to get the headlight buckets started and see if that works. When everything is reassembled, the buckets may be hard into the mechanical stops and the motors can't overcome the initial mechanical resistance.
Hope that helps.

pusher_sr

the headlight buckets rotate freely. the motors & the up/down switch seem to work fine, until everything is hooked up. could there be a short in the switch even though the test shows everything's o.k.? i'll have a look at the wiring along the path, for any possible shorting out. thanks for all the help guys. ted

JohnZ

Are the terminals reversed at the motor connections (or at the connector on the up-down switch)? If they're reversed, the motors are trying to work against the stops.

w1ctc

One thing that was not mentioned was the 40 amp draw. Check your connections,
it should have blown a fuse. You don't want to have a fire!

JohnZ

They don't have a fuse in the power feed circuit - they use a self-resetting 30-amp circuit breaker mounted just above the driver's side kickpad.