Okay, so my headlights work in my '87 Trans. I mean the lights turn on, but the motors do not spin them up or down. I pulled both motors, and re-wired them (the wiring on there was some backwoods janky ****), so I rewired and shrinkwrapped new wire, but the person who had them on there before it looks like they used one relay, and split the wires at the connector on the passenger side.

Where do I need to wire these into, in order to make these function with the "Lights on" switch? Like I said, the headlights turn on, but the motors do not run with the light switch. I am not amazing at shooting wires, so I guess use a multimeter on some wires and just see which ones get power with the "On" switch and just wire them to that?

Thanks!!

 

The headlight motors have two wires which alternatively are set with 12V for either going up or down. What you can test first:

-Disconnect the motors and try to hotwire them (one connector to + one to -) and see if they work at all and also if they really move the headlights (otherwise the gears in the motors are bad)

-The Headlight Control Module is your next step (located at the firewall near the middle/drivers side) with a 4 and a 5 cable connector when the lights are on you should be able to trace the cables with their colour to this module and check if they get the right voltage (green and grey are the ones you look for if I remember right)

-Last step would be to check he switch itself if its burned out (they are not too pricey)

 

I did remove the motors as they needed re-wired anyways, and just touched the wires to a battery and they both work fine. I just need to find the switch and see where it goes. Be back with an update soon.

 

Okay, I reinstalled the motors and now I have another issue.

Both work the first time I hit the lights on switch, and both come down. After the first time one of them stays down and will not go up again. If I go to the motor and just twist the cap towards "open" even a half turn, and hit the lights switch again, it works again up and down.

Is there any way to adjust that switch on the inside of the motor? It seems like when the motor spins down, it rotates too far past the switch and it won't go back up again.

 

There are no limit switches in the motors for '87. You may have a door module on the way out.
The module cuts power when it hits resistance (the limit stops for the headlight housing). If your housings move freely (link bar from motor to housing removed), easily moved/lifted by hand (motors will, mostly, pick up 12lbs), I'd suspect the module.
Granted, you could also have a bad motor and its hitting a dead spot on the armature/brushes at their end of life. Like an old gm starter you have to bump the key a few times to get it to spin despite the *chank* you hear from the solenoid engaging the gear to the flywheel.

 

Is there a way to clean the armature/brushes with alcohol or something or do they just go bad? I guess I can give her the ole tap-a-roo lightly with a hammer.