Technical Questions and Discussions - Fiero headlight "open" knob rotating

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Fiero headlight "open" knob rotating

Printed From: West Coast Fieros
Category: Technical Topics Forum
Forum Name: Technical Questions and Discussions
Forum Description: Got a technical question about your fiero? ask it here.
URL: http://www.westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2786
Printed Date: 03 May 2025 at 9:58pm
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Topic: Fiero headlight "open" knob rotating

Posted By: InfernoFiero
Subject: Fiero headlight "open" knob rotating
Date Posted: 18 December 2011 at 4:09pm

Hello,

My Fiero headlights were both stuck up for quite a while (would turn on and off quite fine), and I did not have time to thoroughly check what was wrong.

Today, I looked at the troubleshooting in regards to my problem, and I tried the first of the list by checking the 20 amp taillight fuse. To my surprise, it was blown. As I was replacing it, some small sparks were made as both of my lights were going down! Then the problem was that I heard a grinding sound against my hood. I quickly opened the hood to see that the left "open" nob on the headlight was rotating, despite the fact that both of my lights were now down! I turned on the headlight button, and my left light would go up, and my right one would not. I quickly disconnected the isolation relay to make the grinding stop as turning off the headlights wouldn't stop the knob from constantly rotating. I tried connecting the relay again and it would still rotate.

I suspect that my right light probably needs its gears replaced, but I have no idea why the left knob is acting strange despite it being able to go up and down fine. Although the left relay is just a few months old, does this sound like a relay problem?

Replies:

Posted By: InfernoFiero
Date Posted: 18 December 2011 at 6:58pm

Sorry for wasting your guys time, I learned that the left knob is actually connected to the motor, and since its rotating without stop that means the motor is running without stopping and thus it has stripped gears.

Posted By: Dawg
Date Posted: 19 December 2011 at 2:52am

Yes and it got stripped gears from having bad (dirty) points. The
motor is supposed to stop when it reaches full up or full down. If
the points are not working, the motor keeps trying to move and puts
a lot of force on the gear. Eventually, the gear strips.

Dawg

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You dream it up....I'll make it

Posted By: InfernoFiero
Date Posted: 19 December 2011 at 1:46pm

Thanks for the response. In the meantime, provided I disconnect the relays to both lights first, I'm going to manually raise the headlights using that "open" star-shaped knob as a temporary solution.

Posted By: Patrick
Date Posted: 19 December 2011 at 2:20pm

Instead of disconnecting the relays you could instead unplug the single wire that connects directly to both headlight motors.