fbarnhill

Hi Guys,
After my fuse panel r&r I had 2 grimlins left over as a result of one of my plugs having an L on it that looked like an H. I just didn't catch it in time. It was writen in script and screwed up. One of the grimlins was the lights didn't go up and down anymore. If I moved them up manually, the lights worked fine. The other grimlin was that the windshield wipers only worked when the headlights were on.

So, today I replaced the headlight power relay and the headlight motor relay. When i first turned them on, it worked fine. Then i turned the wipers on. When i turned the headlights off, they went down, then came back up over and over until i turned the car off or turned the lights back on, in which case they stayed up.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Please keep in mind that I can turn wrenches with the best of them but electrical stuff gives me fits.... If you can help, please assume that you are talking to an electrical novice....

Thanks,

Mrmerlin

well since you know where the firs started thats where i would start. disconnect the battery and pull the CE panel down and inspect the back for burned wires, a wire on the CE panel that has seen heat will have a satin finish instead of the flat finish
Along the bottom front of the CE panel, look over all of the connectors and make sure that none of the individuals have been pushed out of their respective slots a careful eye will see this .

please report back

fbarnhill

Been there done that. Several times as a matter of fact. I have checked every wire with a magnifing glass. When they are going up and down, I can hear the relay clicking. I have taken the old one apart and hope I can get it in good enough shape to try it again. It appears to be with the headlight power relay. Thanks for the suggestion. I will do it again if this doesn't work. It feels like 1000 deg outside. it feels like anyway. I can only work a few minutes at a time.

Mrmerlin

were any of the individual connectors pushed out of their housings on the lower edge of the Ce panel

fbarnhill

None of the connectors were pushed out. After your first post, I pulled the fuse block again and looked closer. I found several wires melted on the underside. You would never have seen it if you didn't try to move them. I replaced the worst one but didn't fix the issue. I am sure there are others. I am going to try to find a replacement fuse block with wires intact. I could spend years on this one and still not figure it all out.

Thanks for your help though. PS. I will probably try again tomorrow if it doesn't get too hot.

Mrmerlin

as i said you can spot the wires that got hot now you have afew power wires and possibly grounds melted together.
I would start looking at the wires on the back of the CE panel that come out of the connectors you swapped

fbarnhill

That is exactly what I came up with while i was trying to go to sleep last night. I can now remove this thing in 10 minutes. I only have to look at the wires pertaining to the lights and the windshield wipers. Those are the only things having issues. I intend to remove them one by one and have a good look at them. The problem is that it is a royal PIA to replace a wire segment. I need to go buy some wire and heat shrink and few other things. MrMerlin, You are always kind enough to respond to my post with good suggestions. I would love to meet you some day and buy you a beer. I appreciate your kindness and willingness to help.

Thanks again,

zoltan944

Frank did you figure this out?
Another possibility is that the motor isn't aligned correctly I think, wonder if it is possible this happened from manually adjusting the lights? Im pretty sure this happened to me when I was lining up my bar and the arm to the motor and it wasn't 'clocked' right and moved up and down. something about the weight of the bar still moving the motor around when the motor hits the position where it should stay. Also think this happened on my 944 with a jam or something too... neither was wiring related.
Just a thought but maybe you can remove the arm from the motor and see if the motor will just keep running without the lights atatched to it.

Mrmerlin

Sean thats an interesting theory, wonder if this could also be part of the problem.
Frank i hope you find the cause of your problem , I would suspect a melted wire issue.
But Seans idea may have merit

Alan

One of the diodes in your headlight motor is fried. you can test and replace quite easily.

Use a DMM diode tester - replace the failed one. A 1A >20V diode will work from Radio Shack.

Alan

zoltan944

thats what i was trying to think of, the DIODES. these give the stop signal. One of these theories is right. lol

fbarnhill

Well guys, My first impression was an alignment problem. I had not considered that maybe i messed it up with raising them manually. One test was that when i used the manual **** to put them down just a couple of turns more, they stayed down till i turned them off and on again. Does anyone know how the adjustment is made? Ok for the diode replacement, does the motor need to be removed?

Thanks for all your help. I am learning. I still hate electrical stuff but am not quite so apprehensive about it. I am pretty sure i have found and fixed all the melted wires short of removing them all. One kind member is sending me another panel to test. If it is the motor, this will not fix the issue. Sometimes it seems we can create more problems than we started with just trying to refresh things. I had absolutely no issues with this car that required this refurb of the fuse panel. However, I did find several places where someone used fuses that were too long and the block was burned where the contacts were pushed up or down too far. So I guess it was a wash... I will get it fixed. Have to, can't sell the car till I do.

Alan

Alighnment issues really only affect the aiming, up position/angle etc. For the motor to keep running (<S4 cars) and the pods to go up/down the signal that indicates the pods are down is not recognized by the relay - this is what causes the motor to stop at the bottom (and also at the top - different switch & diode).

It is not the manual motor movement that damaged it - it was likely plugging the plugs in wrongly.

I think repair will be eaisest with the motor out - not sure if its possible with the motor in-situ.

You are looking for the circular track under the **** area that has 2 diodes soldered across the top.

Alan

fbarnhill

Thanks Alan,
It was too good to be true that there was no damange frome the cross pluggs. I looked at those damn letters for hours before making the decision of which was which. You know, if i add up the hours, this fuse panel r&r has taken longer and cost more than the gas tank, cv joints, intake or the tb/wp jobs. For the next person, I have written it in regular capitol print with a sharpie so there can be no mistake. Now, I will go look for those diodes. Probably won't get to it before the weekend.

fbarnhill

Well Guys, I pulled the fuse panel again and checked every wire. The headlight motor relay is new. The lights will go up when turned on but when we turn them off, they go down and back up over and over even with the switch turned off. I have rplaced the headlight motor with a good one. I was thinking the next thing to do is to use this Used pannel I got from Don Griffin, clean it up and see if it will resolve the issue. Does anyone out there know how I can test from the fuse panel the correct operation? In other words can i jumper one line to another to make it go up and a different one to make it go down? Like I said the headlight motor relay is new but the headlight relay is the same one from before. Since the lights come on, I was thinking this one is ok.
I have spent a ton of time and $$$ trying to fix this issue. MrMerlin, if you are out there, Is there any way we could maybe speak on the phone about this?????? I want to get this thing ready to sell so I can spend my time on my new one.

Thanks,