My headlight retractor started flaking out about a year ago after a long rain. I thought nothing of it after things dried off, but the thing completely quit recently.

Seeing that the motor is well over $200, I decided to try and fix it myself. What I came up with were two problems:

1. Contact paths within the gear housing (the black plastic housing with the most wires running into it, not the motor) were slightly fouled.

Fix: burnish contact paths and contacts with 2000 grit wet sandpaper and clean with solvent on a rag.

This didn't fix it. I took a look at the wiring... then the relay.

2. Water had gotten into the gear housing and the relay was partially submerged for a while. While the relay itself is water tight, one of the relay pins had completely electrolyzed/rusted/whatever externally and was non-existant. Lower right pin below. You can also see the water line.



Fix: $1.68 relay from mouser.com, P/N: 551-EQ1-31000S

The relay sits underneath the white plastic piece, which pops off of the black plastic cover. This relay is tiny, a pain in the *** to desolder IMO. But hey, it was well worth $200+ in my pocket. I had to borrow a 140 watt soldering gun because my 25 watt pencil iron couldn't heat it up enough. I understand that you'll also want to put a heat sink on the diode to protect it from the heat. I used a heat sink and my diode was re-used without any problems.

You will also need some desoldering wick or a sucker to get up the old solder. Take a pic first to record the orientation of wires and the diode (which only lets current flow in one direction and has to be put back like it was removed).

 

Nice work!

 

And for reference/relay troubleshooting, here are the data sheets for the legacy relay (MR301) and the replacement (EQ1):

 

, I'm bookmarking this, because I know if I don't my motor will break in a month.

 

Excellent find! There's a guy here in town with flaky headlight motors, I've got a good used set we'll be replacing them with.

In some instances it would just be worth getting a good used motor and putting it on, but eventually you might run into problems sourcing one. And, regardless, it's good to know how to fix something properly!

Good job!

Dale

 

Glad to share with all yous DIY'ers.

If anyone thinks this is beyond their ability and is interested in having this repair done as a service, please contact me and we'll talk about it.

 

I know this is an old post but think it's well worth bringing back into the limelight, especially because 95 onwards FD's have the internal relay on the headlight motor and there only seems to be 93-94 electrical details around.

Initially I had trouble finding a relay of that smaller size variety here in New Zealand (some Americans are probably even surprised we have relays down here, but we do. We got a shipment in last year, but they're almost run out now :-) )

Anyways I tried to wire a normal relay up externally like this.



Unfortunately it didn't work so I hunted down the closest relay I could find to the original, however it seems the only one I could source was 6mm longer than the original. Lucky I have a renovator tool though

I cut a square out of the back of the unit and let it stick out slightly.


After everything was installed I just RTV'd up nicely around the edges and voila. I also managed to save myself $200. Thanks again alexdimen for the writeup

Only bad thing is my relay cost me $3.30 - probably twice the price as the original post suggests because when jim brought over all those relays from the states, in his luggage, it cost a fair bit!

 

This is the reason this forum is great!

 

Glad you got it working and thanks for the laughs.

 

Hey guy's wanted to give some info since i am attempting this fix now. This part Fix: $1.68 relay from mouser.com, P/N: 551-EQ1-31000S is no longer available anywhere online but I was able to find one on ebay from a seller.

 

Good info.