A few months ago, the left headlamp assembly on my 87 decided it would no longer rotate closed when I shut the lights off. The right side works fine and both lamps illuminate. Back then with bad weather coming on and no real reason to drive the car, I decided to leave it in the up position for the one-eyed look and wait till now to really dive in a figure out what is going on.

So today, I used the manual **** to rotate the assembly to the closed position. There was no noise from the gear and the **** moved the bucket easily and got it to the down position and against the adjustment stop with no problems. So just to see what the other side does when I tried to raise the right side lamp, I got a noise from the motor as though it wanted to close itself.

Then I go to turn the headlamps on with the dash switch and BOTH buckets raised up They both went up fast with no bouncing or grinding noises. So I shut the light off and ONLY the right side bucket went down.

So is this a relay problem? It doesn't seem to be a gear problems as the left side will raise when I manually lower it and then turn on the lights.

I thought about switching the left and right relays, but the connectors are not wanting to release. There is what looks like old sealant from the factory in the connections and I would hate like he!! to break a connector just trying to sway relays.

Ideas?

 

I had a similar problem in my '87 but the dodgy one was the one with power on it when I tried to turn the ****.Apparently if the gears are worn they do not return to the "park" position thereby drawing power.
I spent 3 years trying to fine the reason for my battery drain and it was only when I converted to the later lights and had the motor plugs disconnected that I found out.
At a minimum considering age I would check the gears first before anything else as these are a known problem.

 

The headlights are accually real easy to repair

I have a diagram with pictures here to help you fix your headlight so they work again.

http://www.automobiletest.com/servic...ghts/index.htm

 

Thanks for the link!! I'm suspecting a relay so I'll have to dig thru the black sealer to get the connectors released in order to perform some electrical dagnosis. This gunk looks more like hardened plastic so what would be the best method to free the connectors from the clips? Pry the retainer back and wiggle the connector or try to remove the old sealer with a sharp point????

I didn't think too much about the gears being bad as a broken tooth or gear typically allows the motor to run and there is usually a grinding noise that goes with it. When I use the headlamp switch, the offending motor does not run at all (I can put my hand on it and not feel anything but at the "good" motor, I can definitely feel it running.