Recipe7

i posted a couple days ago about my situation:

sunday i thought i fixed my headlight problem. all i did was simply take out the retractor relay, put it back in, and it was fixed.

when i was driving last night i realized that the passenger side headlight wouldnt flip up again. i tried doing the relay again, but to no avail.

i tried other Red 30 relays on the retractor plug but nothing happened either.

i believe i found the problem though. my overflow tank tiped over inside while i was driving, spilling an ounce or so of coolant on and around the wires for the passenger side headlight.

there is two white plugs that have to do with the headlights popping up. here is a picture of the plug that im talking about (im guessing this the culprit of the headlight not popping up, ill explain in a bit).



now here is the picture of the drivers side plug:



now im guessing that this plug is the problem on the passenger side cause 1) it was a little wet, a little bit of coolant came out when i was unplugging it and 2) when i disconnect the same plug on the drivers side, the headlight wont flip up or down.

how do i fix this exactly?

WAYNE88N/A

Clean the plug out with some contact cleaner or other water/oil-displacing solvent (acetone), perform a visual inspection of the contacts inside the plugs for signs of arcing, then put her back together and see how she does. If you didn't blow anything, short the motor windings, or melt any wiring, she should be good to go

Recipe7

what is arcing exactly?

Recipe7

and how do i clean it exactly? im guessing i shouldnt submerge it into acetone, so should i use a cutip or something?

WAYNE88N/A

Arcing- ('ark-ing)-residual melted metal bridging the gap between two electrical contacts due to a short (Wayne's definition, lol).

In other words, if the plug was wet enough, something shorted, hopefully it didn't cause any damage to the pins (or anything else in the retractor motors, like the diodes)

Recipe7

the amount of coolant i found on the plug doesnt seem like it would affect anything. the plug has walls around it before it gets to the metal contacts. the coolant was along the walls, but i didnt notice any residue on the metals itself.

i looked at the drivers side plug, and it looks exactly like the passenger side, exept its just dirty on the outside.

what would be another solution if its not the coolant?

after all, it wasnt working before until i fiddled with the relay.

also, my headlight popped up around half a centimeter. so its not completely flush with the car. it happened when i was trying to fix it. i pulled the retractor relay, and it worked for a millisecond, raising it half a centimeter or so.

this is agrivating me =p

HAILERS

Sorry, I thought you messed with the fuse and that fixed it. Then, after you fixed the headlight problem, I wrote how there is a relay mounted on the bulkhead behind the passengers headliht and some tips on how to make that relay work again. Or was it another person??

EDIT: Yes, this thread https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...ighlight=relay and I added a picture of the relay. You take it apart. There are three TABS that hold the black plastic cover on the base. Remove the black plastic cover. You'll see the only two contacts. Bend the inner one outboard about ten/twenty thousandths of an inch. Plug back in. Try it out. It's a burnt contact issue.

Recipe7

that was me hailers. i also pmed you..i think.

can you suggest anything?

also, i didnt find anything behind the bulk area

WAYNE88N/A

S5's have retractor relays???

My S4 doesn't...

Are we talking about another relay that we're calling a retractor relay?

HAILERS

In your FIRST picture, where you are on the right hand fender pointing with a screwdriver at a white plug. That is a bulkhead that you are resting your hand on. On the aft side of that bulkhead there is a relay bolted to that bulkhead. Look again.

I NEVER answer ANY pm's. I thought I had disabled that feature long ago. I will never look at a pm from anyone unless I'm buying something on the site. Just a rule I have. No animosity towards anybody.

Recipe7

hailers, here is a picture of my passenger side portion of the bay.



wayne, the retractor relay im talking about is in the fuse box behind the drivers side headlight. its the furthest to the right when looking at the enginebay from the front of the car

HAILERS

In your first picture. Right side of the car. See the two bolt heads that hold the headlight assy on? All colored silver area. See the approx 5/16ths hole inbetween them??? Look directly below that hole, on the engine side of the bulkhead. There should be a relay there. Probably covered in a rubber boot. I just looked at my 87 turo and non turbo. Both have that relay. Held on the bulkhead with a single 10mm wrench size bolt. Do you have one? What year is your car?

HAILERS

My schematics show none for a series four. BUT, I had a passengers side head light not go down a week ago. When raising and lowering the thing manually, I heard a click. The click came from the relay shown in the other thread. I took it apart. I bent the inner contact. The headlight works now. The relay is attached to the wires coming from the retractor motor in the passengers side. Both my 87 cars have that relay. I'll look at my eight six tomorrow.

Recipe7

sorry was getting dinner ready.


i have a 87 TII. im gona look again in a bit

Recipe7

ahh yes, its covered in a boot.

i didnt take it out, but just looked at it.

ill try and do what you said with it tommorow. im going to be busy tonight.

ill do an update tommorow.

thanks hailers

Recipe7

one more thing.

can you inform me on where exactly the **** is to turn to manually put up the headlight assy?

i cant seem to put my hand on it where i reach. unless im looking in the wrong area...

WAYNE88N/A

Sounds like I'm going to have to some searching in my car as well, for an animal that's not in the schematics. Stuff on my car that's not in the book gives me anxiety attacks, lol...It's one relay that controls both retractors?

HAILERS

Under the car. Directly below the retractor motor. Probably covered with a rubber boot that comes right off if you pull straight down. Turn clockwise or anti clockwise, whichever. If you keep turning in one direction it will go full up, then full down, then full up, then full down. In other words ....the direction you turn makes no difference if you turn long enougn.

If the key is to on, and you are turning the ****, when the headlight reaches either full up or full down, you WILL hear that relay click. Keep your hands away from the headlight opening.

I just KNOW that relay is on that bulkhead. Both my eighty sevens have it. Mounted just below that hole. About three inches down and an inch inboard of that open hole between the headlight mount bolt heads.

Wayne, go take a quick look at your car.

WAYNE88N/A

Hailers, I ain't got one, man. Both retractor motors' harnesses run to plugs that look like Palumbo's, then the wiring run disappears into the main harnesses. See no relays, hear no relays, speak no relays

WAYNE88N/A

Man, I just went back and re-read the position of the relay you described. It sounds like where my air bypass relay used to be. I say used to be, because I removed it along with the air bypass valve back when I was trying to kill the 3K system for good (didn't work, if you remember). And my lights/motors still work, which means it couldn't have been the retractor relay. I have no relays in the headlight well areas, or on the other side of the "bulkhead" (what are you, an ex-Navy guy?). Nor any amidships, on the fantail, or belowdecks, port or starboard sides

HAILERS

My, my. You newbies!

This site: http://www.mazdaformance.com/rx7parts.htm

The 86-88 BODY download

Page 2-L3

Section 5103=1

Part number: 51 931 MOTOR (R) FB01-51-66X W/RELAY

Part number: 51 931Z MOROR (L) FB01-51-57X W/RELAY

Please take note of the reference to...........W/RELAY

Sorry if you got shorted your relay. Hope you didn't pay full price for the automobile. What other parts are you missing????? All three of my cars have the relay w/motor. It's part of the motor assy.

If your car does not have that relay mounted next to your air bypass relay (na only) and close to your Fuel Pump Resistor Relay Package (turbo car only 87), then I can't help you.

Question Wayne: Is your car a Mazda RX-7 or a Honda? Chevy? Izuzu? OH! I have it, it's a YUGO! That's why you can't find the relay! Your on the wrong forum. humor, please

HAILERS

P.S. I even went to the wrecking yard last weekend and grabbed one of these relays off a wreck..........spares never hurt on a fifteen year old car. Never through any part away. Even those that don't work.

And the relay is part number 51 939 RELAY FB01-51-663 (2)

WAYNE88N/A

Spares never hurt on a 15-year old car, unless the spare has been sitting out in the weather for 15 years also

That's what I was thinking last night, that the relay is actually part of my retractor motor assy. Makes sense when I look at the schematics also...

Oh, I'm "missing" a whole lot of parts at this point. Everything that wasn't critical to the "airworthiness of the aircraft" during the rebuild got tossed. Even got the power steering rack down to nothing but the rack packed with grease, lol...Whole bunches of wiring (mostly options) found its way into the local landfill too...

Well hell, I don't know if it's a Yugo or not, I've always worked on it under the assumption that it may be an RX-7...That's funny, because a friend of mine years ago had a Yugo. Talk about a POS- the engine compartment wiring in that thing looked like it was installed by 5 year olds, lol...

So you can't help me? What's new?

Recipe7

i pulled out the relay hailers, and the metal doesnt look too good.

heres is a picture:



im guessing this is bad hehe.

im going to attempt to clean it up

WAYNE88N/A

Is that the coil pins, or the contacts? If coil, it's probably burned out (shorted), which means cleaning it up won't accomplish much. If it's the contacts, she probably looks the same at the points inside....

I wonder why the '88s don't have this...