I bought my 84 Vette around 1 1/2 years ago. When I first got it the headlights worked fine, about 6 months later one of the headlights quit going up. I disconnected it for while and was manually putting them up, then when I went to work on it, I plugged it back in and it too would no longer go up.

Now the wiring is a mess up where the headlight relays are. Turns out that someone put a relay from an 88 or newer and I have seen charts where you do not use all of the wires when using this. Does anyone have a correct wiring diagram for a 88 or newer relay setup? This just doesn't seem right. Multiple wires are connected to one and several wires are not connected to anything.

I attempted to wire in an 84 relay I received from someone, this resulted in one light going down but not up. What I mean is it would not do anything when you turned the lights on, but if you manually cranked it up and then turned on the lights it went down!

I attempted to rewire the relay what was on the car and got the same results... one light going down, not up.

Any ideas on this would be appreciated. I'm thinking of buying a new relay because I feel it has to be the relay or the wiring since I have a second set of lights and if you plug them in they do the same thing.

If anyone has a wiring diagram for these updated relays or for an 88 Vette that would be great. Or if anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated. Tired of manually cranking them up.

 

all the relay cars are all the same, the newer style has a module, if you're having problems and they used to work fine, and you havent changed any of the wireing, and a different set does the same thing, its probly the relays. the newer module wont work with the older motors, they are activated different. now would be a good time to upgrade to the newer , module activated lights.

 

Does anyone have a headlight wiring diagram for an 88 Vette? I have on for the 84 but it is different.

 

88-96 used a headlight control module. The 84-87 used 3 relays.

The headlight motors for 84-87 had 3 wires.
The headlight motors for 88-96 had 2 wires.

The control module has 3 sets of plugs going to it.

5 pin plug.
Pin A Yellow wire has 12 volts on it when headlight switch is in Head.
Pin B Red wire is a fusible link 12 volts at all times.
Pin C White wire has 12 volts on it when headlight switch is off.
Pin D Black wire is ground.
Pin E Red wire is a fusible link 12 volts at all times.

2 pin plug for LH motor.
Pin A Gray Black wire from headlight motor.
Pin B Dark Green/Black from headlight motor.

2 pin plug for RH motor.
Pin C Dark Green wire from headlight motor.
Pin D Gray wire from headlight motor.

 

I have relays for an 84 and I have a set of lights out of an 84. I wondering now if I should wire it back the way it was originally when the car came out or get a new relay and go with the newer version. It appears that there are only 2 wires hooked up on this newer one but all the wires are there to go back to the old system. I may do a test to see if the older lights work with the relays I have and save some money (just switch the shells since the old covers are red and mine are black).

Thanks for the diagram. If my going back to the older way doesn't work I will get a newer relay and follow your wiring schematics.

 

Here's the schematic for the older headlight motors from the factory
service manual along with trouble shooting tips.
This was posted by Agent 86 in another thread.

http://members.shaw.ca/dankai/Headlight%20Doors.pdf

 

I completely tore out the old headlights along with the 88 (or newer) relays and replaced it all with the 1984 3 wire headlights and relays I had got off a guy who parted out his 84 Corvette. The lights work now with one major exception. There is continuous power to the light motors. I only know this because I went to manually crank one of the lights up and you can feel the motor still turning, which won't allow you to crank up the light manually. If you disconnect power completely you can manually crank them. It seems to be the same when the lights are all the way up, the motors continue to crank.

I am not sure what to do now. I checked the yellow wires (the ones coming from the relays) and once the lights are up the power goes off on the yellow wire but the gray and red wires (which brings the lights down) have continuous power to them no matter where the light switch is.

I don't know if I am missing something, have a wrong wire connected somewhere or what the deal is. Any suggestions would be helpful. I followed the wire diagram for lights that was in the 84 shop manual and it is pretty direct. The only problem is there are probably 5 other loose wires in the front that I have no idea where they go or why they are even disconnected.

I am going to continue to mess with it but I wonder if the relays I have are bad or not. Or possibly the switch? The relays look like they were hot and partially melted (they are used), so that my be an issue... not sure.

 

On the 3 relay setup, once the door motors are in the fully open or fully
closed position you will not be able to manually position the headlight
doors by using the manual ****. That is normal.

For instance. If the headlight door is closed and you try to open the headlight door using the **** on the motor, the motor will force the headlight bucket to remain closed.

If the headlight door is in the fully open position and you try to
manually close it, the headlight motor will force the headlight door
to remain in the open position.

To test if the relays are operating properly.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal.
Manually open both headlight doors by turning the **** until
they are in the half way open position.

Turn the headlight switch OFF.

Reconnect the negative battery terminal.
The headlight doors should close.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal.
Manually open both headlight doors by turning the **** until
they are in the half way open position.

Turn the headlight switch to the Head position.
Reconnect the negative battery terminal.
The headlight doors should move to the Open position.

If the above tests work the system is operating normally.

 

Yes, but when you manually try to close them you hear a clicking noise from the motor turning not allowing you manually open or close. It just doesn't seem like the motor should keep running like this. This is with the key off and the lights off, it feels like the motor is still spinning. This will obviously run the battery down. According to the operation that I read, once the lights are open the relay cuts the power to the motor, and once the light is closed the relay cuts the power to the motor. I really don't think they should (or can) continue to run once the headlight is in the open or close position.

They do work like you say they should (if half open they will open or close) but, when they are closed you should be able to manually open them I would think. But once you turn the **** to where the gear should engage you just feel a clicking where a spinning gear is fighting against it being engaged. The only way you can manually do anything is if you disconnect the power completely.

 

Sounds like it's working properly.

As long as when the headlight doors are full open or
fully closed and the motors turn off (don't continue to
run) the system is working properly.

If the motor continues to run when the headlight doors
are fully open or closed, that would indicate the contacts
inside the motor are not working.

That causes the teeth on the gear inside the motor
to strip which is the most common failure with that
style motor.

Once the headlight doors are fully open or closed the
circuit is designed to keep them in that position.

You can not manually change their position as long as
the battery is connected.