GKO777

Because my wife had never driven the '63 at night, I took it out last night for a trip to a restaurant.

The headlights had always worked great (they were rebuild by previous owner), but last night, only the right one would raise, left one stayed closed. So because we were already kind of late, I turned the little wheel for 5 minutes to manually raise the headlight so we could still drive the car to the restaurant. Driving it at night is very cool, and my wife was impressed, so great 'date'

But now I'm left with open headlights, because today I found out the right one also won't close again Not that it's ugly with open lights, but I would like to close them again now




Where should I start looking? I have an AIM and shop manual, but I'm not a hero with electrics, so I thought I would ask you guys first

tbarb

I would first push hard on the up/down switch as this switch breaks the positive and the contacts burn the plating and get resistance. If they move when you do that the switch is suspect.

Frankie the Fink

The switch is very suspect, and, with cooler weather the grease inside the headlight motors may have thickened and caused problems. Depends on what kind of lube was used.

1965fuelie

The switch operates both sides. If only one side moves check the cable connection on the headlight motors. I have seen the same problem when the cables have gotten loose and only one headlight have opened.

65GGvert

The switch sends 12v to both the headlights on one wire for up (yellow) and one wire for down (dark green), so if one headlight works, the switch is good. It goes to the driver's side first, so if the passenger side works the wiring and ground is good all the way except for directly at the driver's side. So, you can eliminate a lot of trouble shooting and go directly to the driver's side and check for 12v on the dk green when you hold the switch down or yellow when you hold it up. If it's not there, you have lost it in the short connection to the wire before it goes over to the passenger side. If it is there, you either have no ground to that motor, or it has a frozen or open motor. You can troubleshoot this in five minutes and know where your trouble lies.

EDIT: Sorry, I just reread and you said the right one didn't go down and the left wouldn't go up. So, you have two problems. Check connections from driver's side over to passenger side, and both sides ground. It may be the motor or they may be simply stuck due to sticky grease as stated before. Have someone push the switch and feel and listen at the motor for any attempt to move. Check those connections where they split on the driver's side connector. Either way you can eliminate the switch and circuit breaker.

Frankie the Fink

All good info. Flaky switch, bad/corroded connections, congealed grease all cause problems. One other thing is a galled main gear in one or both motors. This can cause the buckets to not raise at all or be jerky and unsynchronized. These gears are reproduced correctly now if you need to go that far.

OR, you can shell out $500 for the Detroit Speed electronic conversion and skip all those issues forever (that's what I did):

http://www.detroitspeed.com/1963-196...rical-pg1.html

dkleather

Check the harness connector at the firewall for corrosion on the pins.

GKO777

Thanks for all responses, I'll check everything tomorrow, today I had gardening chores
Maybe as stupid question, but I never tried opening the headlight buckets without a running engine, so can you turn them with the engine off?

65GGvert

Yes, they're electric, not vacuum. And you don't need the headlights on to roll them over.

GKO777

Ok, it turns out to be the switch, very glad it's just that

I removed the switch and bridged the contacts and the headlights closed immediately.

The tumbler was very loose and it takes quite some force for the plates inside to make contact, so I have to make it tighter somehow.





But for now, I'm going to enjoy the nice weather and do some cruising, with the headlights properly closed