I am trouble shooting my headlights. The left headlight actuator is not coming up but the headlight lights up. Checked voltage to the pigtail . I am not getting power to the actuator pigtail going for the left actuator. Trying to locate the relay for the left headlight actuator. Also, looking in the fuse box I did not see a fuse for that. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

You car being a 1987 shouldn't have the three external relays like the 1986 and earlier cars had . You will have a black headlight door module about 4" square mounted close to the windshield wiper motor . If one side has power and runs the headlight door motor fine and the other doesn't first check to see that both red wires at the module's connector have +12V , and if so and if your 100% certain the door motor on the bad side isn't getting power then it's either a bad connection in the connector (possible) , a bad wire (not as likely) , or a failure in the module itself (unfortunately VERY common) . There is a small relay in the module that sometimes needs it's connections to the circuit board resoldered , but this is an electronic technician type repair for someone really handy with a soldering iron .

Here is the headlight door diagram for 1987

 

I got the left headlight actuator working. I turned on the park lights, then shut off the park lights. Turned the headlights on and the left actuator worked. Could be something going on with the headlight switch.
Turned the head lights on and off a few times. Headlight doors opened and closed properly. Looks like I need to change out the plastic bushings in the gear, because when the headlight doors close, the left
actuator motor keeps running for about 5 seconds before shutting off. An issue I had yesterday when I had the left actuator off to change the bushings was that I could not get the gear out. Does the actuator
worm gear have to come out first so that the gear can come out?

 

No, it doesn't usually have to come out. It just takes a bit of fiddling for the gear to slip by.

 

Replaced the plastic bushings in the gear of the left headlight motor. On the left actuator, nothing left of the bushings except for plastic dust and particles.
I had to pull out the long worm gear to free the big gear so it could come out.
I don't remember having to that on the right headlight actuator when I replaced those bushings a number of years ago.
Both headlights are opening and closing properly now.
Looks like the headlight switch may be the culprit that was causing me to have no power to the the left actuator. Trouble shooting the switch; if I switch on
the park lights then switch off and then press the bigger part of the headlight switch on, the left actuator works. Looks like a minor problem that can be worked on at
another time. Thanks to those that replied with feed back on this.

 

There's a lip on the plastic gear. On one side it's under the worm gear, the other it's on the top. You don't have to remove the top half of the motor to get it the gear out, it just makes it easier. If you fiddle with it long enough, it'll just suddenly magically slip past the worm gear. You just gotta keep finagling it, hold your tongue just right, and whammo! it pulls right out. Don't ask me to be more specific, I can only tell you I've replaced the pellets in both motors and I've never removed the top half of the motors. If I can do it, it's surely possible.

 

Thanks Drew for the help. For some reason, this gear I could not get out. When I changed the bushings in the right headlight actuator, did it a couple times through
the years, the big gear came right out easy. The left one for some reason would not come out. That is why I slid up the worm gear and the big gear came right out.
Somehow the way the big gear and worm gear mesh together it locks in that big gear. Well anyway, had to do an extra step to get it done, but the headlights
are working correcty.