70 charger headlight doors

[prisoncop5]

I took my charger out today. Went into a store and came out to find my headlight doors in the up position. Tried the lights a few times but the doors would not come down. Manually cranked the doors down. Started the car and the doors slowly came back up. Cranked them down again and the same thing happened again so I disconnected the actuator. Anybody have any ideas as to what the hell is going on?

[Kern Dog]

The door motor is just that... A MOTOR. It has contacts inside that are prone to corrosion just like any other electric motor. There are rebuilders that can fix it. Check with the local auto parts store to see if they offer this service. Otherwise, these door motors interchange with many other Mopars into the early 80s. I have a few spares from New Yorkers I snagged from junkyards.

[Plumcrazy]

Sounds like the relay is stuck.

Whenever the key is on, one of the wires going to the motor will have power.  Turning the headlights on switches it to the other wire.

[nascarxx29]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,65221.0.html

[Kern Dog]

Sounds like the relay is stuck.

Whenever the key is on, one of the wires going to the motor will have power.  Turning the headlights on switches it to the other wire.

Good point. I had the relay crap out on the way to Spring Fling in LA this year. It turned out to be a loose screw that grounds the relay. Mine was clicking like Morse code. REALLY annoying.

[BananaDan]

The issue is often the relay.  I had a problem where the doors would go up but not back down.  I replaced the stock relay with the Bosch 5-pin upgrade/mod and all is well again with less than $10 spent in parts.

I've never tried it, but I've heard/read that you can bench test the motor off the battery.  You unplug the two-wire plug from the firewall at the motor and plug pos/neg from the battery into the two terminals and it should go up or down.  If you reverse the polarity it should do the opposite.  If the motor behaves as expected by doing this test the issue is most likely the relay.

Since I haven't done that test myself, someone please check my math on the procedure so he doesn't fry his motor if I explained it incorrectly.

Dan