Well I just purchased myself a 85 firebird and it needs a lot of electrical work.

here is whats wrong electrically
1.headlights wont go up (pretty sure its electrical)
2.My lights in the rear only light up when im braking
3.interior lights wont work
4. Cigarette lighter wont work
5. wiring is all messed up for audio

Im thinking I might need the electrical system completely redone. How much will this cost or do you think its easy enough for someone who doesnt have much knowledge of carsbut is eager to learn? Any help would be greatly appreciated guys

 

1. Need more info. Do they come down by themselves if you crank them up manually, or do they just do nothing?
2. Check the bulbs first, then check for bad wiring or bad fuse (TAILS fuse IIRC).
3. Number of things can go wrong here. The light switch can be bad (which I would guess as most probable since neither the headlights nor taillights work), the dimmer can be adjusted to the "off" position, the secondary voltage regulator can be shot, or you could have a large set of dead bulbs... but thats highly unlikely.
4. Check for anything stuck in the bottom of the lighter, then check the CTSY fuse... the rest starts with that.
5. A hack job huh? Sounds familiar. There's a good set of schematics located on the TGO main page>Tech Articles>Electrical to get your wiring straightened out.

Complete harness KITS (can't get a drop-in harness for the V6 cars) start around $300-400 IIRC, and it will cost more to have someone install the harness for you.

 

The front headlights do actually go on they just wont flip up. They will flip up when I do them manually. There was also a hack job on the lights to get them to flip down. I have changed out all the fuses on the car too, maybe im killling fuses for some reason or another.

 

Your headlight motors use three relays for their up and down operation. The relay for each specific motor is on the inside of each fender next to the coolant recovery tank and the windshield washer tank. The third relay, which supplies power to each of those, is on the bottom of the front frame(passenger side) near the radiator. You'll know it when you see it because it looks just like the other two, and its part number is similar, though not the same.

If you get a "motoring" sound when you turn the lights on but they just won't move up or down, then your relays and power are good. It's the gears inside the motors that have worn out. Gear rebuild kits can be purchased from TDS, a sight sponsor whose link is at the top of the page.

But if you get no sounds at all, motors totally dead, when you turn the lights on, they won't pop up, and they won't go down after you've cranked them up, then it's one, two or all three of the relays.

It's common for the gears to wearout. But if it's electrical, it's usually a relay because the motors don't usually go bad. Hope that helps.

 

ill look into it and see what i can do when i have time