67 Headlight Help

[Ara G.]

When I had my car at Bloomington and the "ops" started, my headlights weren't going up...After a second or two they came up, albeit slowly. The headlight switch is the original one in the car. So, I sourced an NOS switch and replaced it today. The headlights go up and down, but the drivers side goes much much slower than the passenger side. Ironically, they both go down at the same speed/pace. I am NO electrical guru, and wanted to know if anyone could point me in the right direction to begin diagnosing this issue before I start pulling the headlight motors out (which I would love to avoid if I can). Any help is appreciated as always. Thanks. ARA

[Gerard F.]

Re: 67 Headlight Help

When I had my car at Bloomington and the "ops" started, my headlights weren't going up...After a second or two they came up, albeit slowly. The headlight switch is the original one in the car. So, I sourced an NOS switch and replaced it today. The headlights go up and down, but the drivers side goes much much slower than the passenger side. Ironically, they both go down at the same speed/pace. I am NO electrical guru, and wanted to know if anyone could point me in the right direction to begin diagnosing this issue before I start pulling the headlight motors out (which I would love to avoid if I can). Any help is appreciated as always. Thanks. ARA

Ara,

Check all your electrical connections and contact points, then check for binding in the headlight pod pivots. If they are OK, and you still have a problem, then you are going to have to pull the motors.

Check the main drive gear for being bunged up, hardened grease, or a contaminated motor. You can turn the die cast gear 180 degrees to it's good side, but once you have the motor apart you might as well change the gear with a new one. They are about $25 each from Paragon.

I've had problems with both of mine. A number of years ago I got fed up, pulled them both, changed the gears in both, cleaned the motors up and lubed them. Haven't had a problem since.

You can bench test them with a battery or battery charger.

Cheers,

[Jack H.]

Re: 67 Headlight Help

Jerry is deadnuts on here. There are TWO issues:

(1) What shape are the drive motors + drive gears in (clean, lubricate, replace parts as necessary and get them moving properly on the bench under 'no load' conditions.

(2) Once the motors are a known/correct entity, their rotation rate on the assembled car becomes a matter of insuring rotational friction is the same (or close to the same) for both buckets. That's often a matter of trial and error strategic shimming to nail down/resolve.

[Ara G.]

Re: 67 Headlight Help

Jack and Jerry
THanks for the replies. I noticed that the ground wire on the drivers side motor was painted. I sanded the bracket and replaced the star washer. I then tried the headlights and the drivers side worked much much better. I will tweak it further, but it is working much better than before. Thanks soooo much for the insight and advice. It's appreciated as always....THanks. ARA