63 headlight motor

[Rainer S.]

I tried my headlight housing motors.
The left housing will move up or down, but will stall once in awhile. after a few minutes it will move again, when activating the switch. The right will move a short moment, then stop. after waiting, a few minutes, it will move again when activating the switch, as if there is an overload cutting out, and then resetting itself.
Both head light buckets do not apear to be jammed mechanically, when they stop. I can move them fairly easily with the manual knob at the end.
Is this possibly caused by "weak" motors or could that have anything to do with the wiring ?
Both motors have not been restored, and I don't know if they worked OK, before I removed them when I started the restoration.
If they need restoring, who does the best job ?

Rainer

[Jack H.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Often the bronze drive gears have chewed teeth resulting in sloppy engagement. Sometimes, you can 'flip' the gear 180-degrees to get on the unused portion of the gear's teeth and save yourself a gear replacement...

[Rainer S.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Thanks, Jack.
That's what I thought at first, too. But since the buckets move ok, when turning the manual knob, I was ruling out gear problems.
How much "backlash" is normal ? In other words, when turning the knob in one direction, then reversing the knob rotation, how many turns on the knob is normal, until the buckets should move again ?
I will remove the motors to better bench test and investigate further...

Rainer

[Timothy B.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Rainer,

I had the same problem with mine and the solution for me was the up/down switch under the dash. The contacts frost with use and not a good connection. If you remove the switch and unplug, there are three big wires, you can jump the hot wire to the up and then the down wire to see if there is a problem here.

[Rainer S.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Tim,

Disconnected the (2) wires to the micro switches - no change. Removed the motors from the buckets, plugged them back in, including grounding them - no change. They work, then they stop... Next step will be to by-pass the under-dash switch, as you suggested.
Where did you get the replacement switch ? Did you use a reproduction, or are used ones available ?
(Will have to wait, ran out of time...)

Rainer

[Wayne W.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

The micro switches have nothing to do with the operation of the motors. The stoping is probably caused by the thermal switches inside the motors. If the motors labor, the switches get hot.

[Rainer S.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Wayne,

Tim is not talking about the micro switches on the motor mount,he is talking about the actuating switch on the dash. (I already eliminated the micro switches by unplugging them)
I will bypass the dash switch tomorrow. If that does not solve it, I will look at the thermal O/L in the motors, that could be it, also...
We'll know tomorrow...

rainer

[Bill W.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Rainer,

I just finished trouble-shooting slow/no motors on my '66, my problem was two-fold. The original dash mounted switch was "tired" and I had developed a poor ground. Check your switch and clean the ground, which to under the screw holding the horn relay onto the rad support on my '66. Good luck! Bill

[Rainer S.]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Bill,
I will check the ground, but I have just about ruled out the dash switch.
This morning I by-passed the switch and jumpered the forward and reverse contact at the switch plug. the symtoms were about the same as with the switch, but would be, if the ground connection you mentioned is poor.
I dis-assembled bothe motors completely and inspected everything visually.
Found (2) problems so far.
(1) brush was stuck on one motor, both motors were worn, were the brushes ride.
Took the armatures to work and had my lathe-hand polish the diameters with 80 Micron polish paper (which we use for polishing bearing journals for transmissions at Ford)
The brushed looked good.
The interior of both motors were dirty also (sand dust from sandblasting - wonder how that got there. HE HE..I taped the assemblies, before sandblasting ???)
Will file the O/L contacts with a contact file and re-assy both motors, with new grease etc and try again. If problem is still there, will go after the wiring as mentioned in the posts above.
Thanks everybody for their suggestions...

Rainer.

[Harry Sadlock]

Re: 63 headlight motor

Rainer, I had a similar problem but with just one motor. I swapped everything I could between motors to help with the Problem determination.

As a result is was the lower brass bearing, was worn and out of round.

They don't go that often, but they do go.

Harry