924Board.org

[rainman73]

Good day guys, just got my 2nd porsche924 circa 1977. I got it with the headlight motor not working. I fitted the relay and cleaned the switch and a got it working. One problem is, I turn on the headlights, the headlight closes with lights on. Turn off the headlight and it pops up. Crazy. I tried testing the female part of the headlight switch and when I bridge the upper part of the switch which corresponds to the off part of the switch, I closes and vice versa.

No come the dumb part, on my part. I tried rotating the 4 pin plug on the headlight motor, and guess what, when I tried it, smoke, burn the wire a little. Looking at the wiring , it looks like that pin 1(counting from the top) and pin 3 are common wires. I put it back the right way and it still was doing the wacky dance, lights on but headlight unpopped, lights off but headlight popped.
Guess what I did. I tried interchanging the pin 2 with pin 4. No response. When I put it back the right way, won't work any more. Now waiting for a new relay, I feel it burnt. I looked at the online manual and I can't see any fuse for a 1977 headlight motor. Can anybody help me out

[poorsha924]

hi Rainman
that is odd. Have you removed the rubber cover for the manual tumb screw on the motorto lift the headlamps to make sure it is not a mechanical problem? should be able to turn the screw & see the headlamps come up when they reach full open positon & the electrical side is worknig properly they will automatiaclly go back down to close positon By jumping& swappingpins did not help your cause if smoke came out you most likey created a B+ to ground issue& maybe ruin the motor there are fuses for the headlamps & the motor & i would have to check sure there is a headlamp relay in the fuse box also. check the fuses in both fuse boes one on firewall& one to the left of steering wheel mounted horizontally Getting ready to leave for work will have to check later but will let you know If you do need a headlamp motor I have a good one from a 77 with the relay if you need the four pin relay is a standard 4 pin bosch relay nothing special
Steve
_________________
79 924S snailshell
audi big bore t-body
16" turbo wheels

[rainman73]

at first I tried turning the motor manually and it would just rotate back to the up position and not come down when the lights are off.
I was looking for the fuses and what I have in my car is the relays on top and 16 fuses in the bottom. I think the aux set of fuses came on a later model. I looked around and didnt find another set of fuses. With regards to the fuses in the firewall, i would have to look for it. Is it in the engine compartment or inside?

[whynot]

I too have a 1977 model and I think I had the same issue you have. I had my car apart for painting and when I finally finished reassembling it the headlights were doing the same thing as yours. I had installed the arm on the motor 180 degrees out of phase. I wound up unbolting the arm, turning off the lights and then while the lights were retracted bolted the arm back to the motor. Not sure if that is your issue but might be worth a look.

[poorsha924]

Hi Rainman
Sorry fo not getting back sooner. I read whynot's post it does make sense. Did you try it.? I did check my 77 parts car & you are right no secondary fuse box. so everything is in the main fuse box on the inside of the car on the firewall. If you did not blow a fuse by swapping wires around you could have either smoked some wiring down the line or damaged the headlamp motor/& or switch Trying to make head or tales of the Porsche oem schematics they are terrible . I did see there ie a early & late build on the 77 model 1976 thru 1977 1/2
according to haynes manual what month was your built in? I will access alldata at work to see if it is any better on the headlamp curcuit.
Let me know on the progress
Steve
_________________
79 924S snailshell
audi big bore t-body
16" turbo wheels

[poorsha924]

Hi Rainman
Sorry fo not getting back sooner. I read whynot's post it does make sense. Did you try it.? I did check my 77 parts car & you are right no secondary fuse box. so everything is in the main fuse box on the inside of the car on the firewall. If you did not blow a fuse by swapping wires around you could have either smoked some wiring down the line or damaged the headlamp motor/& or switch Trying to make head or tales of the Porsche oem schematics they are terrible . I did see there ie a early & late build on the 77 model 1976 thru 1977 1/2
according to haynes manual what month was your built in? I will access alldata at work to see if it is any better on the headlamp curcuit.
Let me know on the progress
Steve
_________________
79 924S snailshell
audi big bore t-body
16" turbo wheels

[rainman73]

I'm still waiting for the relay, should be coming by tomorrow . I will the solution of rotating the arm of the headlights/motors, it does make sense. Hopefully the motor is still ok after my brain fart

[poorsha924]

Rainman
while you are wauting on the relay check for power @ the relay connector @ ter headlamp motor it is a four pin relay one terminal is veritcal other three horizontal shoud have B+ on the one termnal that is different if not need to find where you lost power 1st. Then power up motor with fused jumper from power in (which is the vertical connector to the one 180 degrees from it the horizontal one that is bypassing the relay see what you got
steve
_________________
79 924S snailshell
audi big bore t-body
16" turbo wheels

[rainman73]

OK, so I got my relay yesterday and tried it. I followed the advise of rotating the arm. When I switch on the headlights, the lights will turn on, sometimes it will pop out but more often than not i have to rotate the motor a few turns and will pop up all the way. if Iturn the headlights off, it will not go down but it i turn the motor a few revolutions, it will go back down.
So what do you think is the problem? the motor or still the wiring?
I just hoped I came up with the idea of rotating the arm earlier before

[poorsha924]

Hi Rainman
sound like you are making progress. So it works some of the time & when it dont you can help the motor along to get it it to work. sounds like one of two things either mechanical binding of the headlamp linkage or the moter is weak or damaged. disconnect the arm from the motor see if you can manually move the headlamps up to down by the crank arm if they move easily turn on the headlamp switch with key on see if motor runs on its own but still could be a bad motor just not able to carry the load of the headlamp mechanism
just a process of elimination
Steve
_________________
79 924S snailshell
audi big bore t-body
16" turbo wheels

[rainman73]

ok will try unloading the motor

[rainman73]

Well just tried unloading the headlight motor and still same response

Any other ideas?

[staticsan]

Sounds like the locator disc needs a clean and service. This is not hard to but requires pulling the lifting motor out and its gearbox apart. The locator disc has contacts and tracks to control when and how far to move the motor.

Wade.
_________________
'82 British NA - Which I think I've been very lucky with!

[Ozzie]

turn on the lights so the headlights close.
disconnect the arm on the motor driving the headlights.

turn off the headlights and the motor will rotate.
reconnect the arm on the motor.
_________________
Porsche 924 1984 (UK import) NA
Its AUTO and its BLACK
Montego Black on black/red
Engineer of Electro/Mechanical Systems Maintenance

[rainman73]

Ozzie, I wish I thought of that before I inverted the wiring. Now it won't do no more