So I rebuilt my headlights on my 86 following buddycraigg's thread (great job, btw), and using Rodney Dickman's kit, and my headlights would work fine as long as the car was running. If the car was not running and I turned the headlights on or off, the limit switch wouldn't engage. I'm guessing this is due to the car have more voltage when its running. However, these last few weeks my drivers side headlight will not come up, unless I give the knob a little twist. It then will pop up fine and close fine. Sometimes it will go up without the assistance, but most of the time it can't do it. What exactly could be causing this? Thanks for any help!

dirty contacts on the limit switch
dirty contacts in the relay next to the motor.
dirty brushes
dirty commutator
some metalic dust between the bars of the commutator changing the angle of the magnetic field in the coil windings
open circuit in that one winding of the coil.

[This message has been edited by buddycraigg (edited 10-08-2007).]

Thanks for the reply! I will check it out tomorrow and let you know the results.

i added a few more things

Well crap, now you have me worried! Hahahaha. Thanks again!

I'm a few days late.... but Ive been driving with the lights popped open so I wouldnt have to mess with it for a while. I did check it out a few days ago, and found that if I pulled on the wires that lead to the limit switch, it would work. Sometime it would act like it was getting quick shots of power, and would come up very "shaky". I then looked at the limit switch, and there was dust all over the thing. I cleaned it all out and it acted like it was working fine. Then the next day, it started acting stupid again. I dont know if the wires could be bad, or if theres dust on the commuter. Guess I'll just have to rip the whole thing apart this time.

Well I figured it out. The wire that ran from the circuit breaker to the commuter arm had a broken solder joint. The wire also has a small clamp around it, and when I tugged on the green and grey wires that run to the limit switch, or banged on the top of the motor, it would make contact and the headlight would act jumpy. I scraped the old solder off and soldered the wire back in place, and now all is good. Here is a pic from your rebuild thread buddycraig that shows the wire I am talking about. https://images.fiero.nl/pffimages/DSC01564.JPG
Thanks again for your help. You are the man when it comes to Gen 1 headlights!

toadson
i thought about telling you to check that solder joint.
but it's not that common
and i really didn't know how to explain it.
glad you got it working.

everyone else,
the solder joint he is talking about is ABOVE the red circle in that pic