Hideaway headlight door not functioning properly

[moparblake]

Last winter I did the headlight relay upgrade and alternator wiring upgrade to my '72 fury wagon. My wagon has the hideaway headlights that were working previously to the wiring upgrades. After installing the upgrades, the headlight doors were not working as they should. I followed the wiring diagrams on here for doing the headlight relays and for the parts list to do the job. I did some digging on here and for b bodies only and found threads for wiring a new relay under the dash to replace the original relay for the headlight doors. I wired that upgrade in as well and still no luck with the headlight doors. They will be closed until I turn on the headlights and then open as they should. When I shut the headlights off, they do not close. I will be the first to say I'm not the most electrical savy, but I can follow diagrams and do some basic stuff. I drove around all last summer with the headlight doors open since I leave for work in the dark, driving the car 3 to 4 days a week to work. I'm looking for any help to get the headlight doors working correctly. Thank you

 

[mgm1986]

Love the wagon, favorite car behind a convertible!

I would start by manually testing the headlight motor. You mentioned it worked before the upgrade but that doesn't mean it still does.

Disconnect the plug at the motor and using the wiring diagram, apply 12v to each side of the plug. One should open the doors the other should close the doors. Listen carefully as you do this. The motor has a limit switch inside that should cut the power automatically when the doors are open and the same when they close.

If the motor keeps running after the doors open/close (you'll hear it), it indicates a problem with the internal limit switch. If that isn't working it is possible it stripped the plastic gear inside the motor preventing it from closing.

If the motor operates correctly by applying voltage manually you will want to start testing the wiring and make sure you're getting voltage when and where you expect.

I rebuilt my headlight motor and added the newer bosch style relays and it works well. Rebuilding the motor was pretty straightforward and the new gear set was available on ebay. The internal limit switch on mine was bent but not broken so I was able to bend it back to work correctly.

Keep us posted.

 

[mgm1986]

Also, if you can post a picture of how you wired your relay for the headlight motor that would help with troubleshooting.

 

[Big_John]

Last winter I did the headlight relay upgrade and alternator wiring upgrade to my '72 fury wagon. My wagon has the hideaway headlights that were working previously to the wiring upgrades. After installing the upgrades, the headlight doors were not working as they should. I followed the wiring diagrams on here for doing the headlight relays and for the parts list to do the job. I did some digging on here and for b bodies only and found threads for wiring a new relay under the dash to replace the original relay for the headlight doors. I wired that upgrade in as well and still no luck with the headlight doors. They will be closed until I turn on the headlights and then open as they should. When I shut the headlights off, they do not close. I will be the first to say I'm not the most electrical savy, but I can follow diagrams and do some basic stuff. I drove around all last summer with the headlight doors open since I leave for work in the dark, driving the car 3 to 4 days a week to work. I'm looking for any help to get the headlight doors working correctly. Thank you

View attachment 703310

Here's what's happening.

When you put the relay in place, that isolates the filaments in the headlights from the switch. The relay that opens and closes the headlight doors uses that filament to return ground to the relay. Yea, it sounds screwy, but if you study the FSM wiring diagram, you can see it.

I went through this with my '70 300 and did some research and discovered the Charger guys go through this and figured out how to beat it. I address this in post #3 in this thread. Headlight Relays with Hidden Headlights

Basically, the relay under the dash is replaced with a Tyco unit and some fairly simple wiring.

 

[moparblake]

Big_John, I actually read that thread multiple times, ordered off of the list you provided, and printed your prints off to take in the garage when I did the relay upgrade. Somewhere I found a link to the charger guy's wiring for the under dash relay as well and read the thread that they had going. I am pretty sure I followed your prints exactly but I have been wrong before. The next time I'm by the car I will get some pictures of what I actually wired/did.