AlexJH

All the 'bird owners, listen up...

Do you know if the headlight actuator (I think that's what it's called, the relay to make the headlights go up and down) is the same on the V6 as the V8? Are they same through all the years? I've got an 87 Bird, and one of the headlights refuses to go up... it goes down when I turn them off if I put it up manually, which is a real bitch. I'd rather have it stay up all the time if it was going to be broken

Anyway, I'll probably be calling around to junkyards and people wrecking their cars, so I want to make sure I get the correct part.

PS. I've been through about 4 roadblocks, and only been told once to fix it by a lady cop... go figure.

TomP

1987.. that's a two-wire connector going from the lights harness to the headlight motor, right?

I'm not sure about 82-92 relays being the same, but 87-92 relays should definately be the same. That's the nice thing about GM, if they didn't have to do a design change for V6 vs V8, they didn't.

I don't know much about the 87-up "2-wire" setup.. on the 82-86 "3-wire" setup, there are three relays. One is a main relay, on the passenger side of the radiator support. Then, there's a relay per headlight, located on the upper main frame rail, by the strut tower, behind each headlight. (i.e. the driver's headlight's relay is in that spot on the driver's side.)

Good luck, and let us know what you find! The relays shouldn't be that much through GM, possibly $10 each.

[edit] If you want it to stay up all the time, just disconnect the two wire connector from the headlight motor (technical name = actuator).

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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited November 09, 2000).]

AlexJH

Hmmm.. perhaps I didn't explain myself well enough. The thing that is broken is the 'black box' right near the firewall on the driver side. It has five wires coming in, and four wires going out (or it could be the other way around). The actuators are fine, I hooked them up directly to +12v and they went up and down no problem. It's a 2 wire harness to the actuators, you're right.

I'll keep my eye out for 87+ birds, thanks Tom.

Well, thanks for the idea about disconnecting the wires. Duh! I should have thought of that.