When I turn the headlights on the motors do not come up. When I manually try to crank them up they start to come up and then the motors push the lights down. I removed both relays and cranked the headlights up, turned them on and they both work. So it sounds like the motors work ? Do I have a short, bad ground or what ? Car is a 1975 that has been off the road ( stored indoors ) since 1991. Battery is good also. I need lights .

Sounds like the motor armature may be in the wrong start position on the lights' axles &/or on backwards - so the motors "think" they're putting them up, but it's already at "bottom-dead-center" so to speak? Another may be wiring on bass-ackwards with same result?

I would check the armature and linkage. Did you take them out for the re-paint?

Eric the wiring/motors were not removed for the repaint but the headlight buckets were. What specifically about the linkage is there to check ? And the armature ?

The arm goes through the rubber seal/gasket and attaches to the headlight mechanism with an M6 bolt. There are bushings in there that may be out of place or the mechanism may have been reattached with the arms mispositioned.

I might start by just checking there but, remove the round part of the rubber gasket covering the armature (outside of the bucket in the trunk) and loosed the 10mm nut and remove both arms from the motor head.

With the arms off, cycle the headlight motors by turning the lights on and off. Reattach the arms, aling them properly and snug down the 10mm nuts again.

Just a hunch.

Here's a shot of the area I'm talking about...


If you look, there's a smaller secondary pivot arm. It may have been in the wrong position to raise the light when you attached the headlight mechanism to the armature.

Now that I think about this problem I don't think it's mechanical. Some additional info that I forgot to post. When I purchased the rolling chassis it did not have a headlight switch installed for whatever reason. I purchased a used one in supposedly working condition. Because I despise all things wiring I had my mechanic install it along with the /6 conversion wiring. Car runs great ! . However I noticed the other day when the car was running when I pulled the light switch on my center console temp gauge pegged on full hot and amp gauge pegged full negative. So I have an electrical issue to work through. So what's the approach to do this ? I'm guessing get factory schematic and trace wire colors to switch to see if they match where they should be connected ? I really have little confidence when it comes to wiring that's why I had the shop do it. If the wiring is hooked up correctly to the switch ( I trust the shop ) then what !

I have not fixed my wiring issue but today I found a clue. I had the car running with the headlights cranked up manually and the headlight switch on. As previously stated this makes the temp gauge go full hot and volt meter full negative. One by one I pulled fuses to see if any stopped this condition and sure enough one does. It's the 6th fuse from the right and I don't understand the legend on the cover. The cover shows 4 horizontal lines, then a vertical followed by 2 horizontal lines what does that mean ? It has a " K " next to it. My Haynes manual is worthless on any of the descriptions of the fuses.

License plate light.
Mike

I found out that this fuse is for the license plate lights. I checked the wires on the lights and felt/traced the wiring for a ways and it looks good. I swapped the wires one light at a time and no change. So I think my problem is in the harness or at the fuse box. Oh joy.