71 charger hidden headlight wiring

[71green go]

NACHO!
I Bought the complete wiring harness from a Guy on ebay, its like the factory harness.......I followed the drawing as below for the factory relay.....The headlight doors do open and close...HOWEVER
They open in reverse...I turn the ign and the doors open, I turn on the headlights and the doors shut..lol
The relay I am using is from around a 1978 car....The other issue is it seems the relay keeps trying to do something after doors actuate...I hear it clicking or making a noise until I turn off the key
What did I do wrong!........
I ran the green wire to the factory harness location that is for actuating the headlights, the Black wire (blue in the diagram) I ran to the ACC in the Fuse block...

[70 sublime]

Can you just reverse the 2 wires coming out of the relay that go to the door motor ?

[71green go]

Can you just reverse the 2 wires coming out of the relay that go to the door motor ?

Maybe yes.....but I am wondering why the relay/circuit breaker is still energized after they open or close.....
And I would have to cut and splice this premade harness...which I really dont want to do

[70 sublime]

I am working on my headlight door motor right now for my 70 Charger
My motor was not too happy (noisy bearings need grease)
So I opened it up
The two wires going in from the relay go to two seprate switches by the gears inside the motor
When the motor goes one direction the power goes through the little switch until the motor has gone far enough to open the doors
When it gets to this point it goes over a cam that pops the switch open to make it stop
At the same time the other switch has now closed so when you want to close the light doors it is ready to put power through the other way

I would think the relay would have power in it to close the doors any time the key for the car is on if the light switch was on or not (like if you turn the key off before the windshield wipers are all the way down and then they go the rest of the way next time the key is on even when the wiper switch is off)

[70 sublime]

Can you just reverse the 2 wires coming out of the relay that go to the door motor ?

Maybe yes.....but I am wondering why the relay/circuit breaker is still energized after they open or close.....
And I would have to cut and splice this premade harness...which I really dont want to do

Can you not just slide the ends out of the plug and change sides ?

[71green go]

Thanks for your replies......
I believe the RELAY i have is from a later model car, maybe -78?
so the connections on the relay that open /close the headlights are opposite the 71 relay...so I swapped the wires and now it works ok that way!

Now...I think the other issue is that the motor is not tripping the switch once headlight doors open all the way...and it keeps trying to open more......which will burn out motor or relay, so I have to dismantle everything and see if I can reset the switch in the motor.......it was rebuilt by a friend of mine so he may have gotten the switch setting off a bit, Other than that it looks like new and works great!

[70 sublime]

Had the same problem with my switch

Take the 5 screws that hold the lid on the gear box
As you lift the lid off push the gear up through from the bottom at the same time
Only go as far as you have to so you can see the contacts (if you go too far it will all pop apart)
Now the gear is away from the motor shaft you should be able to turn the gear with a screw driver but it only goes about a 1/4 turn
You should be able to see which contact is not opening at the end of the turn
I had mine apart all the way a few times and the last time I had put it together one of the conacts had gotten on top that should have been on the bottom so mine would not stop either

[71green go]

Can this be done with motor still on car??

[70 sublime]

Not sure how much stuff is in the way on your car but it was just 3 bolts and the 2 wire conections to get my motor off

I do not think this is something that would go well if the motor was still in the car (you would not be able to see what you were trying to do if at all)

[ottawamerc]

There are small alignment marks on the gear housing and gear drive, make sure they are aligned and then pull the cover off it makes sure that the switches dont get messed up

[Nacho-RT74]

for correct relay setup you can check which prong has continuity with the input source in rest position ( not energized ) this is the one must be feeding the CLOSE wire.

[71charger_fan]

My headlights suddenly stopped working and the doors stopped opening. There's power at the HL switch because the taillights and parking lights come on. Where in that tangled mess under the dash is the relay hidden? I suspect my switch may have gone bad, but I will try and trace out the current to find out where it dies.

[71green go]

The factory location is underdash by the ash tray area.......

[71charger_fan]

Attached to the dash or to the firewall? I tried to change the headlamp switch this evening, but my hands are too big to get up in there. I'm going to have to pull the dash panel tomorrow.

[Nacho-RT74]

on the close up pic you can see the headlight time relay delay, and at a side the hideaways relay

[ACUDANUT]

I'm lazy. I do not drive at night. However, if I have too. I use the thumb wheel and open them up.

[71charger_fan]

Mine was a bad headlight switch. Fortunately, I had a new one on the shelf. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it out without popping the bezel out and, of course, I broke off a piece. A corner down by the steering column. Even worse, I forgot to put the piece that broke off in a safe place and it's in the bottom of the car wash vacuum's dust collector now. I have a spare bezel, but that's just too much work to wrap my head around right now.

[73charger440]

What is it the breaker in the diagram do? And where do buy one ? I'm looking at the bosh double throw relay I don't care if it's original

[Nacho-RT74]

I dunno if automotive breakers are available on parts shops up there but they are on ebay.

Is a safety system in case of the motor doesn't cut the power when gets the final point on gear, so the breaker will cut the power when overheats. Powered windows use then in case some switch button gets stuck.

Dunno whats the breaker amperage rate on this thought! Must be something like 10 to 15 amps maybe?

[73charger440]

Thanks Nacho you not only answered my question here but in the Bbody fourmn  about the ignition 1 and 2 MSD question I had. I think you've been answering my questions for 15+ years. Thanks BTW. So is there something in the motor that shuts off the relay?

[Nacho-RT74]

You're welcome... its a pleasure to me try to help.

Yes and no, motor got points and tabs inside , built into the gears to cut the power when reachs the total track, opening and closing. After the relay failure, thats the point to rebuild when the system begins to fail. If points are not cut/opened into the motor for whatever reason, the motor is still getting power and trying to push while is stuck, and breaker cuts the circuit by the heat due the load.

The relay is allways getting and sending power, but going to nowhere if the motor gets correctly done the points cut. When you shut off the headlights, the other wire is energized to get inverted the motor direction, then another point will cut the power inside, but relay is still sending that same signal just once again, going nowhere into the motor but to the cut point.