My head light wont go down!!
 

Well here is the thing i put a new battery in my rx-7 1991 and my lights went up,, i checked the fuses all the fuses and there fine. any body know whats up? the lights work but they just wont go down i tried the switch that puts them up or down but that wont work either. help a brother out!!

Maybe the motor is burnt out? The lights went up all by themselves when you swapped in the new battery? Are the headlight motors hooked up correctly?

Have you tried the OTHER headlight switch near the regular headlight switch??? Try that and see if it's in the wrong position. You do know about this switch I talk about?????

It's the very next switch up from the headlight switch. And like the fellow said, see if the RETRACT fuse in the engine bay is good/bad.

Haha, somebody was joshing around in my car one day without me knowing, playing with the switches and shit. He turned the headlights on, then turned the switch above it to open the lids. He then turned the lights off, and the headlights stayed open. He came in with the face like he just saw a ghost, because he knows that car is my baby.

Thank god it was such a simple fix :P

yeah i checked all the switches, the fuses, the motors work because i even lowered the lights manually and they still go up as soon as i hook up the battery. i even bought a new 3 point relay switch and they still dont go down. i dont know what else to do?

Only thing I can come up with is to go to either of the retractor MOTORS, and pull the plug off it. Put a meter on the Red/Yellow wire and see if you get batt voltage when the headlight switch is put to Down. It should be there. IF not, and in your case it probably isn't, then maybe the headlight switch is kaput.

You could prove that by jumpering some wires at the switch plug.YOu'd pull the plug off the headlight switch (14 socket plug) and with a piece of wire, jumper the pure RED wire to the Red/Yellow and then jumper to the Red/Blue. Frankly, that online series five FSM wiring diagram seems to have some wire colors crossed b/t the switch and the retractor motor. So try both Jumpering the Red to the Red/Blue and then to the Red/yellow.

jumpering wires how? to witch switch

The headlight switch is in the cluster along with the turn switch, wiper switch etc. On the left side. You pull the plug off the switch and then jumper the wires I mentioned. Yes, it's difficult to remove the plug from the headlight switch. But sooner or later your going to have to.

I'll post a jpg of *jumper* later.

Well, this isn't a perfect example, but it's the only one I have a jpg of. Your plug is going to be much larger than this one, and the piece of wire you use does not have to have the spades on the end. Just get a piece of wire and bare both ends. Insert one end in the pure red wire in the plug and the other end in the other wires I mentioned above. The Red will have 12v on it and when you jumper that to the other two wires mentioned above, the retractor motors should go up or down. Depending on which of the two other wires your jumpering to at a given time.

edit: i'm an idiot and didn't even read your original post.

I'm 99.99999% sure you need a new FC01 CPU box. Its the little black control box behind the driver's side plastic kick panel. I'm guessing you shorted out your battery when installing it. The exact same thing happened to me. Refer to this thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/s5-light-riser-problem-700151/

If you have Theft Protection on your car, that might be possible. Pull the plug off the CPU and see if the retractor motors work now or not.

You didn't mention connecting your battery up backwards. Did you? For just a moment?

TOOMUCH4U's post makes sense. There is a wire from the CPU to a relay in the light cluster switch. IF you disconnect the plug from the CPU (down near your left foot area), and now the lights go down/up, then that is the problem.

There might be a cheaper fix than another CPU though. Just depin the wire b/t the CPU and the Headlight cluster switch. Let us know what happens.

yea 2 of my friend hooked up the batt. backlwards and the headlights went up and stayed up, as a matter of fact, ther still up as we speak. did u hook the battery backwards? even for a second?

You should be able to overcome that. If you go to the light switch (I know, you have to remove the plastic surround to get at it) and pull its plug off. Then depin the Black/Green wire from the plug. It should be on the top row on the end. Only black/green there. IF you can't extract it from the plug, then snip it a couple of inches back from the plug and cover the end with shrink tubing or tape. Personally I'd reconnect the plug and try the headlights to see if they work now or not BEFORE reinstalling the plastic surround.

Or you could go to the CPU and depin it there. Easier access there at the CPU.

OR since you have this problem yourself, try just going to the CPU and removing the plug from the CPU. IF I'm right, then the headlights should go up/down. If that is the case, then just cut the black/green at the CPU plug. What'a ya think?

EDIT: FYI....I notice on the series five diagram, the black/green wire is also on the top row, far end on that CPU plug also. Easy pickings. Try to extract it instead of cutting it if you can. IF you cut it, cut it back from the plug by a inch or two so it can be spliced back together later if needed.

The CPU location is shown in this jpg;

i did put the battery backwards for a second, i forgot to mention that. so is that the problem?

From the posts above it sounds MOST PROBABLE. But. I suggest you can FIX this by following the IDEA of just removing the electrical plug from the CPU located next to your left foot. Shown in the jpg I attached. Takes but a MOMENT to do and find out if this is the problem or not.

PUlling the plug off the CPU hurts nothing. Just pull it off and turn the headlights on and off. Takes but a MOMENT to remove that plug.

For a permanent FIX that is CHEAP, all you would have to do is SNIP the wire in question AT the CPU's electrical plug. Piece of cake. Ten minute job. The lights will work NORMAL after you do that.

Here's a jpg of the headlight switch and how the Theft interfaces with the retractors:

It WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks alot guys all the info was really helpfull! thanks again!

Thank TOOMUCH4U's post. I'm generaly unaware of any thing involving Theft Protection.

So I assume after you pulled the CPU plug the lights worked, and then you cut the Black/Green at the CPU a couple of inches back and now alls well. Good deal.

Beats buying a new/used CPU.

damn, where were you last time this issue came up hailers? You coulda saved me $10 on buying a new cpu lol

Maybe it just wanted to wink at ya.

HAILERS, you are the man. I originally took your suggestion above to try to fix my headlights, so that they would go up and down properly, but it did not work the first try - my headlight switch was also bad.

I had disconnected the black/green wire earlier, and it did not make my headlights go down - meaning, they would both instantly pop up, unless I either disconnected my headlight cluster switch or pulled the retractor fuse. I drove myself crazy by trying to repair my headlight switch (desoldering it, trying to reverse engineer the switch, etc.). IceMark even helped me with a PM, to trouble shoot the headlight wiring, and that's what got me to order a switch. NOTE - all FSM manual checks came out OK, but my switch was still bad.

I finally ordered a switch from Apex Auto, and still had the same headlight up problem. Sooooo, I search again for this post, and I pull the green black wire (again), and they now work normally. For shits and grins, I plugged in my old headlight switch, and they popped back up with the lights off, and would not go down, until the new headlight cluster switch was plugged in.

Last thing - my headlight up problem was caused by someone jumping the battery backwards, and they said only for a second.

Im having problem with my left headligt. It wont go up/down. I´ve tried 3 different headlight motors and no one worked. I´ve also tried pull the black CPU plug but it didnt help either. What is the next thing to check?

Thanks

If it's a early series four, it might be a retract relay. Some series four had retract relays, some don't. Swap the left and right retract relays and see if the problem travels. I'm sure I posted a jpg of the location somewhere above.

...is your motor burnt out?