1971 Hideaway Headlight Question

[tricky lugnuts]

Strange days for the hideaway headlights on my 1971 Charger...

The electric hideaway headlight motor only operates when my high beams are turned on....

That is to say:

If I pull on the headlight switch on low beams = nothing, no doors open, no lights, no headlights on.

Click on the brights (with headlight switch still pulled on) = doors open, all lights come on. Click off the brights to go back to low beams = doors close and all lights go off.

Is it the headlight motor relay under the dash malfunctioning?

I hooked up a new brights/low beam foot switch and that did nothing to solve the problem. I've also cleaned all sockets, terminals, and connections and visually inspected all the wiring and that did nothing.

The headlight switch itself is newer...

Has anyone else experienced this problem before? If so, what was the cause? Any recommendations for diagnosing this?

[Nacho-RT74]

VEEEERY WEIRD... the relay is feeded by the green wire running to dimmer switch, what is the direct source from headlights switch, so SHOULD work with any of the beams being teh green wire feeds BOTH beams position. The floor dimmer switch is just a selector.

[tricky lugnuts]

I agree, it's very weird.

The strangest thing is that nothing has been taken apart or tampered with recently.

One day the set up worked - as it has for the last five years - and the next morning it starts doing this.

If I simply unplug the bright headlights, everything works as normal as long as the brights are selected. Of course, if I want to turn on my brights on a dark country road, I have to go plug them back in...

I'm at a complete loss.

[Nacho-RT74]

ok, let's try to work on this. LETS' FORGETT the hideaways problem itself, because I think fixing the low beams problem, will get fixed the hideaways at the same time

so you are saying YOU DON'T HAVE low beams with turning on headlights, but you DO HAVE high beams whem pressing floor selector ?

try to unplug everything from hideaways relay to chase the problem. Unplugg every wire of the system INCLUDING the splice from green wire to relay ( bullet terminal ) and keeps doors manually open. Lets make to work the low beams first

[tricky lugnuts]

That's right, Nacho.

If I turn on my headlights and they're on the low beams, nothing happens, no door operation, no headlights come on (except the parking lights come on). If I click on the brights with the foot switch, the lights - high beams and low beams - come on and the doors work just fine, until I click off the brights... If I click off the brights, all the lights go off and the doors close, even with the switch still in the on position.

Thanks for the idea of disconnecting things.

So you're saying disconnect the green wire at the hideaway headlight relay, and every other wire in the hideaway headlight system, open the doors manually by spinning the knob at the bottom of the motor, and then chase the low-beam headlight problem from there?

I'll give it a try and update you - it might be a day or two, however. I'm stuck at work right now and it looks rainy, but I'll get on it ASAP and let you know what I find...

Thanks again...

[Nacho-RT74]

remember I'm talking also about the wire coming from green wire somewhere between the headlights switch and floor switch. It should eb as far I know a bullet kind plug.

You could keep the blue wire attached to relay. No need to remove that one really.

I'm thinking SOMEHOW you got some wires melted and shorted somewhere between green, red and violet wires running to floor dimmer switch.