69 Headlight Door stuck? not relay! - just sticky??

[Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>]

I can't speak to HL doors staying up, but I can speak to them staying down.

 

Many of these motors refuse to operate if they have been sitting.  Mine did, and I was too lazy to install the spare that came with the car and manually operated mine using the knurled knob on the bottom.  Open the hood and feel for it under the cylinder of the motor.  Have the ignition on and the lights off if lowering, ignition on and lights on if you want the doors open.  I did it with the car running, but that might not matter much. 

 

If you don't have the controls set in the direction that you're trying to actuate the manual wheel, the thing could break free and take off on you in the opposite direction and bend a finger or something.  You have now been warned about that.

 

After operating it manually about a dozen times in the course of 2 weeks, the thing worked.  I flipped the lights on and off several times and response increased to its current state of freedom and apparently originally intended operation.

 

I suggest that your car may have been parked for some time with the doors in the up position, and that the motor gummed up in that position?  If the car is shut down with the HL sentinel ON, the doors will not retract when the lights are shut off (with no ignition on) by the timer after you leave the car. 

 

I became convinced about the stickyness syndrome after the car subsequently sat for a month and then refused to open up its doors again.  Just starting to twist the knob then freed the motor up and they snapped open.  Seems like more than 4-6 weeks of inactivity is the max that mine will allow.

 

Last item: try some contact cleaner on the 2 blade connection plug/socket in the power wire 5 inches from the motor?

 

-Disregard if your HL doors were working great and crapped out on you all of a sudden.

 

-Kenyon

 

Leo <lblais@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My headlight doors have decided to stay up no matter if the lights are on or not.

I am assuming that it is the headlight door relay misbehaving.

There are 2 listings in the parts manual

one for cars built prior to 12/9/68

and one after 12/9/68.

How does one tell which it is?

Where is the relay located physically?

Any help appreciated.

LRB

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