hi all,

on my 89 formula, my headlight motors seem to work intermittently. some days they spin up fine, others the light goes on but the motor acts as if it's dead. someone said it was a bad ground. I have 11.88 volts coming out of the pigtail that plugs into the motor...i thought the ground was the body of the car, and if it's bolted in securely how could i be having grounding issues??

any thoughts here guys? thanks in advance...

 

89...I had/have the same issue on my 84. However, no my bad ground got worse and my lights don't go up or down.... they would be intermittent sometimes for a while and then didn't come up at all...I have not checked all the wires per say but I did put in a new motor...no fix...changed the headlight switch...no fix...when I wiggle some of the wires the motors turn real quick and jerky so it's a grounding issue somewhere. Might not be at the frame ground either...Might be somewhere in the wiring. My plan is just to get new wires and rewire the headlight circuit....those old wires get corroded and don't conduct as well so yeah....Hope you can figure yours out!! Good Luck!

 

the wiring, at least up to where it plugs in to the motor is good, as i am getting 12v out of the pigtail. The ground however on the 89 is not a separate wire, but is actually car chassis. as far as wiring it's just those two wires going to the motor and they seem fine...i don't think rewiring it would help me....the ground seems pretty simple as it just bolts to the car chassis, how could this cause issues unless it wasn't making proper contact?

 

There might be some broken wires somewhere in there that might not be letting all the current go thru....If you can check the ground with a meter where the wire grounds out and where it connects to the light motor that might give you and indication if the ground is good or not. Make sure you connect to the wire tho and not the frame ground.. Other than that, check fuses, fusible links, can you rig the motors to a 12v source to see if they move? I'm not sure how different the 89 might be, my motors have 3 wires.

Electrical problems are a royal pain.

 

Make sure the actuator (motor) itself is working. Turn the manual **** to raise and lower the headlamp several times. On my 92 they were intermittent as well. Turned out to be mechanical - in the actuator, the buffers had deteriorated too badly.
It's an easy fix if that's the problem.

 

GW thats a great idea, would explain why i never lost voltage to the motor...i can manually raise and lower them though but i'll double check it.

Kraze - on the 89, they used a 2 wire system...there is no ground wire either, the ground is the engine chassis and the fact that the motor is bolted to it...not sure how that would work though if anyone cares to explain

 

Got no idea on that one man...kinda odd that both wires are power but idk???

 

heard it might also be the headlight control module? anyone know how it works or how to test it?

 

I was finally able to get back out there today.

one motor is spinning, the other one is dead. voltage at the good motor is 11.8. Voltage at the dead motor is 2.5. i think this is my problem.

i tried unplugging and reconnecting the connectors on the control module, no luck. i traced the wires from the firewall to the motor and they look fine, and are enclosed the whole way. i noticed the connector on the dead motor looks a little corroded so i tried cleaning it out but it's tough to get in there. even after cleaning it and putting electronics spray on it it still only reads 2.5 volts. is it possible i need to replace the connector? i really don't think the wires itself are the problem...

 

The wire itself might not be all bad but if you have corrosion at the connector that worked it's way into the wire a little, then that could stop or reduce the voltage that is getting thru. Like on some starter cables, the whole wire might not be bad, but at the connector it's corroded enough to not let all the voltage thru, then end up replacing the entire cable. You might be able to get a new connector and get back far enough from the corrosion...just have to see....hate to chop the wire short and then not have enough to reach...that's why I am thinking about just running all new wires on mine. My car is now 30yrs old....yours is 20+...maybe bad wires, maybe not...electrical is a pain either way...