Pop Up Headlights Reversed?

[xandarin]

Hey, this is my first post, but I just came across an 89 accord lxi with a few issues.
I think the left fender got hit some time in the past and the pop up headlights are kinda screwed up. The left one pops up opposite of the right one. When I hit the button to flip the lights up the right one flips up and the left one stays down. When I turn the headlights on the left stays down and the right goes up. When I turn the headlights off the left one pops up and the right one goes down. I was thinking the wiring got reversed or something, but I'm not sure which wires to reverse. Any ideas? Thanks

[mkymonkey]

just change the polarity (i think thats what its called) of the neg, and pos wires going to the motor. that should do it. im not sure which is which though. just use a test light to find out. ill go check right now and see if i can get an answer for ya

[mkymonkey]

ok, check to see if the wiring harness has been tempered with. on my car it looks like they're pretty well put together. the black wire is ground the rest have power going to them when they are up. i really didnt check good enough to give you a straight forward answer, but i think you should just check to see if anything has been tempered with there first since its the wiring with the easiest access. if its a problem with the relay some one here should have a wiring diagram for ya, cuz i sure dont lol


i guess every little bit helps. lol

[lostforawhile]

this is strange,maby someone tried to put the wires back together after the accident,the arm rotates completly around the motor,so it should line itself up. there is an upper and lower limit switc built into the motor that tells the control unit what position the light is in. the other possibilty is that power is not reaching one motor,if you connect one dc motor to another,when you turn the first one the other one rotates in the opposite direction. if the motors are tied together somehow like this that would happen. one last possibility is that the motor came from a different honda with popups and the wiring might be just a little different.

[Mac]

It's probally not wiring. More than likely someone changed a headlight and got the linkage screwed up.

Turn off the headlights and put the headlight retractor switch in the down position. Whichever headlight is still up is wrong. Take out the bolt that holds the linkage. Then extend the headlights with the headlight retractor switch (both should be up now). Put the bolt back in and it should be good to go.

[mkymonkey]

^hmm never thought of that....

[lostforawhile]

i went out and looked at a linkage arm and the arm is keyed,it only goes on one way on the motor. if they are out of sequence the arm rotates all the way around to bring the headlight back into alignment. it's an active control in other words the unit uses position switches to telll where the motor is. it's also possible that the headlight motor control has gone screwy,it's a little gray box under the dash that controls the position of the lights, you could probably pick one up at the junkyard cheap,the retractor manual switch also has two circuits in it,if it's bad it can cause this. the control box will say stanley retractable control on it. back to the linkage,if the front were hit,it's possible the light was forced up and that key was stripped out. in that case try doing the suggestion about moving the linkage. before you do this-pull the headlight retractor fuses under the hood!!!! if you don't that linkage can move suddenly and smash your fingers. as you try and rotate it the switches trip and the light trys to move.

[speedpenguin]

don't that linkage can move suddenly and smash your fingers. as you try and rotate it the switches trip and the light trys to move.

i know from experience that this is true.
right now my lights won't go down because my hood rubs against one of them.
i need a new hood

[Mac]

The headlight motor rotates all the way around when it extends or retracts. So the linkage will hook up the same way if the lights are up or down. Just try this before you mess with the wiring or change parts and see if it fixes your problem.

the retractor manual switch also has two circuits in it,if it's bad it can cause this.

The retractor switch is 1 switch with a wire for extend and a wire for retract. The extend wire is then spliced and goes to the extend side of the left and right headlight motor. The same for the retract wire.