63 headlight issue

[Gerald C.]

I was helping a friend of mine with a 63 replace his battery and new cables. Everything went well and then he tells me his left side headlight bucket won't open after that. As he operated the up/down button the passenger side went up but not the driver's side. I heard no clicking or any sound coming from the driver's side. I took the motor out to bench test it and nothing happened when I put power to it, no sound at all. I took the motor apart and found that the small ground wire inside was a little frayed, but not broken. Could this be an issue???

The gears move freely by turning the wheel at the end of the motor.

I'm perplexed on what to do next. Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Harry S.]

Re: 63 headlight issue

I was helping a friend of mine with a 63 replace his battery and new cables. Everything went well and then he tells me his left side headlight bucket won't open after that. As he operated the up/down button the passenger side went up but not the driver's side. I heard no clicking or any sound coming from the driver's side. I took the motor out to bench test it and nothing happened when I put power to it, no sound at all. I took the motor apart and found that the small ground wire inside was a little frayed, but not broken. Could this be an issue???



The gears move freely by turning the wheel at the end of the motor.

I'm perplexed on what to do next. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Jerry, clean the brushes with acetone. Remove the armature and clean the commutator with 600 grit black sand paper. Install and tray again.

[Gerald C.]

Re: 63 headlight issue

Harry,

I cleaned the brushes and used a utility knife to clean out the grooves. Then sanded the armature and commutator clean. Then reassembled. Still nothing. I didn't have any acetone. Can I use lacquer thinner???

[Harry S.]

Re: 63 headlight issue

Harry,

I cleaned the brushes and used a utility knife to clean out the grooves. Then sanded the armature and commutator clean. Then reassembled. Still nothing. I didn't have any acetone. Can I use lacquer thinner???

Yes, just trying to remove grease buildup.

[Duke W.]

Re: 63 headlight issue

Check that there is 12V at the harness connector when the switch if moved to both the open and close position.

It's not a good idea to clean the commutator with sand paper because any left behind sand that you can't even see is an insulator.

If there is power at the harness connector it must be an open circuit somewhere inside the motor, so you need to check the armature and field coils. I don't recall if the shop manual has a procedure to overhaul the headlight motors, but since they're basically the same DC architecture as the starter motor, you can use the starter model overhaul procedure and electrical checks in the shop manual as a guide.

Duke

[Richard M.]

Re: 63 headlight issue

Jerry,

The brush strands can be touched up with a little solder using a soldering iron. You said you took it apart? To what level? Did you remove the brush plate AND the armature?

I have a video of a motor repair I did, including diagnosis, testing, and repair, HERE.
It's a playlist of 11 individual recordings I made. Click "Play All" in the Playlist window.

Since it fails operation on the bench, a few areas to consider are:

Thermal Circuit Breaker. This is designed to open circuit if the motor becomes too hot. It's located on the phenolic board brush plate. Check continuity between the contacts. It's possible it is carbon coated and a simple cleaning with a points file will correct it.

Open Field Coil(s). Check for continuity between each power terminal to ground(case). Touch your 2 meter test leads together to calculate meter error, then subtract that from the actual readings. Typical readings should be a few ohms, but not 0 ohms. If 0 ohms, the coil(s) are shorted.

Shorted armature. Check each commutator copper segment to ground(steel shaft/winding housing) with a ohm meter. If 0 ohms, it's defective. A growler(armature tester) is needed to test for individual segment shorts.

Seized shaft bushing. In your case, since you can turn the thumbwheel, it appears that it is free.

Rich