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When my 73 is at idle and I turn the headlights on they raise only about a quarter of the way up..
When I am driving and I turn the lights on they usually will raise all the way..When I turn them off I have to let the car idle about a minute before they actually go down..As a matter of fact the left one goes down right away but the right takes about a minute..
Is it the actuator itself you think or maybe just a seal? Thank you
Actuators can be changed with the hood in place. I'd tape up the front edge of the hood and surrounding area, as mine rubbed slightly as I pulled them out from above, but no damage to a freshly painted car. If it were me, I'd look at the seal where the rod goes into the actuator. If it's dry rotted or missing, I'd throw a seal kit on your actuators.
The seal kit is only about $25 and easy to do, rather than forking over the $$ for new actuators. A seal kit fixed mine, and they wouldn't raise at all.
If they raise when driving fully with no problem and do not at idle you do not have enough vacuum to raise them.
You could have a leak somewhere in the system. Do not start changing out parts until you know what the probelm is. Very costly and usually does not solve the problem.
Plenty of articles in the archives to help with this issue.