okay I own an 84 T/A, the headlight motors are good but when I push the switch the go up then I press it to go down and nothing happens. What on these cars control the up/down movement, any info would help.

 

HITHERE had this same problem with my 83 T/HITHERE, and found that it was the relay mounted to the side of each motor. Easy fix .
Good Luck!

 

it's probably the bearings inside the motors, when you turn them on do you hear a ticking sound like they are trying to go up? if so the bearings are bad, I just pulled mine apart and my bearings are completly gone, a bunch of plastic shavings fell out. all you'd have to do to find out is pull your headlight housing and motor, and remove the gear plate, which is 3 screws, remove the gear and if the gear is still good the bearings under it are bad

 

DEI305t/a,
Hey, I might actually be able to help some one finally! I used to have an 84 t/a 305 h.o. (Black And Gold; loved it) and I had the same problem which drove me nuts for about a week. My headlight doors would go up, the lights would illuminate normally, but the doors would not come down. (I hate the way that looks, too.) Anyway, it ended up being the absolute LAST thing i would ever have checked, naturally. Ends up, the taillight fuse was blown, and it shares it's feed with the "down" contacts on the headlight motors relay. Hopefully you haven't ruled this out already; i'd love to hear I sucessfully helped you work this one out!
~Jack~

 

I would have never of check that. I get my car back from the shop tomorrow and I going to see if that is the problem. I have blown a few taillight fuses in the past. thankx for the info I'll let you know.

 

Dei305ta,
Definitely check it out and let me know if i was of any help! Good Luck!
~Jack~

 

jloshotz
I got my car back and I looked at the fuses and they where all good, but is the taillight fuse in the fuse panel located below the steering wheel. Since that fuse was blown in your car what else wasnt working besides you headlights not going down.

 

dei305ta,
It was the Stop/hazard fuse that was blown in mine. I didn't notice anything else not working; just my tailights and the motors wouln't go down. Maybe no parking lights at all. I think that fuse controls the "down" on the relay. Sorry to hear it wasn't the problem...
~Jack~

 

What fuse controls the UP movement of the headlight motor?

 

Not Certain Warrior. I know they have separate pwer sources however...

 

dei305ta, have you checked the relays? There are three... an isolation relay, and two actuator relays.
I'd suspect the isolation relay. IIRC, it's the one mounted on the passenger side, right next to the radiator.
The two actuator relays should be on the inner fender (one on each), behind the headlight assembly.

-Jeff

 

jloshotz


:hail: thanks man, after all that fuse was my problem. I didnt see it untill I pulled every single fuse out and check them. Good news after all you finally can say you help someone on this site. Hey maybe you can help me one more time how do I get a different logo instead of this gay bear. I dont know how I pick it when I first signed on to this site.

 

Dei305ta,
Awesome! Glad to hear you've gotten rid of the "ugly problem." As far as the gay bear goes, click the button up top that says "user cp." Then go to edit avatar, and choose from there. You can also use a pic from your website or str8 off your computer; however it can only be 64pixels X 64 Pixels, which is pretty small. I am yet to get the size perfect myself, hence the "gay whatever it is" I'm using.
Jack

 

.

 

I just got a new to me 1983 Firebird. The left headlight went up and stayed up after I was showing my daughter and her boyfriend the car this evening. I have looked over others comments and I think I will look at the motor on the left side as the right headlight is going up and down fine.

I will let you know what I find. I am glad there are others with the same kind of car I have as I hope to fix my firebird up so everything works!

 

Well, after finding out how to remove the headlight assembly I then played with the connections to the actuator relay. I thought it was a bad connection but after cleaning the connections and still getting the same headlight up but no down I found that if I wiggled the two wires that come from the actuator to the relay the motor would lower the headlight. I took the cover of off the relay and there was corrosion inside.

I made a trip to the local 24/7 autoparts store (after calling and confirming that they had the relay). The relay cost $15.00. I installed the relay and the headlight now goes up and down just like it should.

If anyone wants more info I will be happy to run on about this.

dzimmerm

 

Thats just what I was talking about
Glad to hear it works for you now!

 

1990 'bird. OK, my problem is a little different. The driver's side (left) began flapping, not reaching the upper limit, then quit completely. I bought a replacement motor, put it in...same symptom as before....struggling to reach the top, giving up when it's about half way up and falling back down. Also, any easier way to remove the motor than reaching through the small side opening, like, removing the entire h/l assembly? Any help/suggestions?

 

I also have a problem my driver side motor stays on after it has opened or closed for about 10 seconds. Is this a sign of future problems to come?? Is there a quick fix I could do now to fix a gonna be major

 

Ok, I kind of have a similar problem here.

I have an 87 Bird, with the headlight motors having the 2 wire terminals. My Headlights go up, and not down. I think it might be the relays, but when everyone else had this problem, did you also not have any running lights? My headlights illuminate, but nothing else up front does. Could this still be from the relay? Please let me know. Thanks!

 

When I had the problem with the relay,
all the other lights worked fine,
it was just the function of the light
not going down as it should.

Sorry if that didn't help your problem

 

virginyan, on my 1983 transam I had to remove the head light assy to get to all the pieces. I can not speak for other years and models but if your car has the same configuration as mine then you can remove 4 bolts and 3 connectors and the headlight assy is out here you can work on it.

The problem with your headlight not going up all the way after replacing the motor sounds like a problem with the gears in the headlight assy. There are several articles about how to repair or replace broken or worn parts to get the gear assy working again. The posts I saw even had one guy that sells kits to replace the parts that go bad. This could also be the problem with the motors running a while after the headlights go up and down that another poster, LedZep, had. The gears starting to wear out is a likely cause. I will drop another post with the location of the thread on fixing headlight gear problems.

dzimmerm

 

I found the thread, here it is.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=177235

If that does not work then it is on this board. It is located in the body and interior section and it is on the second page of that section.

I left a fairly long post there explaining how I removed the headlight assy and what wires and such needed to be disconnected.

If you have problems finding it let me know.

dzimmerm

 

Emodork138, I think they said something about the circuit that powers the down operation of the headlights being on a seperate fuse from the circuit that powers the up operation of the headlights. It is very possible that a fuse that powers the other lights is also the one that powers the down operation of the headlights. My problem only involved one headlight so it was easy to isolate the issue as being the actuator relay on that one headlight assy. If you have BOTH headlights not going down I would suspect a blown fuse, especially since you have other things that are out at the same time.

Good luck!

dzimmerm

 

hey dzimmerm i had the same problem except i just changed the relay and it still wont go down. The motor used to not work at all. I replaced it and it goes up but not down. What would be the fing problem for me now?

 

OK, it appears I had got a bad replacement motor for the driver's side. I rebuilt it using Lon Salgren of Top Down Solutions' kit and now...no more headlight up and down problems.
My running lights don't work now and the didn't before and I know it is most likely the relay. Problem is, even after someone emailing me a wiring diagram, the relay was not where it showed. They must've hid it well in the 90 model.

 

90 model doesn't use relays man. they use a computer.

 

ok someone on here please tell me howto clean off that nasty greasy stuff off the connectorsof the relays. Mine i figured wasn't working right due to all the grease blocking connections. I still can't seem to get rid of it either. What should i soak it in?

update: i'm about to take out the big guns and get rid of that grease forever. Denatured alcohol, if that dont work Acetone baby.

update: denatured acahol sucks on car grease. Acetone, OMG, is the ****, my tanks came brand new white clean, and everything looks new that i used it on. You should get some too. ?Just dont get it on your car paint will eat through that **** like candy.

update: thanks little buddy lonsal, my year/model is a 1986 Trans Am.

 

I have a suggestion that can save a lot of frustration and grief. When posting your suggestions/solutions for repairing these Firebird headlight actuation units please state what year you own. Since there are several versions used through the years. The 1982-86 units are completly different having two smaller gears inside and relays to deal with to get them working properly. The 1987-92 units have one large nylon gear with 3 gel bushings or inserts that contact a cast 3-lobe part that turns the actuation shaft. My headlight repair kit repairs the latter version.

Thanks,

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

I am glad you got your headlight going up and down. I should have rementioned that my TA is a 1983. I did read where the setup is different on later years.

By the way. The grease on the connections of the relays is there to keep water away from the connections. If you take it all off I suggest you try and seal it with something to keep water and salt away from those connections. You can either regrease it or try using something like RTV. WD-40 can sometimes be used to clean old grease away and it is a little easier on plastics than acetone. You might also try brake parts cleaner as I believe it is a degreaser also.

Oh, RTV stands for room temperature vulcanizaton and it is the generic name for all those liquid rubber and bathroom calks. I like the clear stuff myself. It is quite strong when set. I used it to put my passenger side mirror back on when I first got the TA as it had fallen off for the previous owner but he had luckly saved the glass part. If you use RTV to seal the openings on the relay connections you will need to use a knife to cut through the seal if you need to take the connections off.

Glad to here you got it all working. I just got done putting about 800 miles on my TA by driving it up to my Mom's B-day in Michigan. I live in ohio. The car did fine. I did find out it is a little twitchy when you go from a tarvee road onto a not very flat gravel road. I thought I was going to end up in one of the fields on either side there. I think 60 series road tires just don't track well on gravel, . Had to slow down to about 30 and it still wanted to wander a tad. I avoided unkempt gravel roads after that.

dzimmerm

 

my car usesd to be my step-dad's and he used to drive it from here(jacksonville, fl) to pasagula, mi every weekend. He is an excellent mechanic so the car runs perfectly even after all those miles being put on it continually.