Left Hand Side headlight continually rising and falling

[dellyend1]

Evening all,

Hope you have all been having as much fun as I have blatting around in the wedge all weekend.

However, this evening , I hit a bump in the road and all of a sudden the left head light raised up and then lowered in a continual motion, the lifting motor just constantly going. When I flicked on the headlights both stayed up so I had to drive around with the lights on as would have looked a bit of a dick with one light merrily dancing away

I think I've obviously rattled a loose connection and I've done a google search and know how to get to the lights etc but could anyone point me in the fast direction or has anyone had these exact syptoms ?

Cheers All

Jeremy

[pk500]

take the pod out and open up the motor there is a brass looking strip whet goes round there are 2 parking switch`s on has bad connection i guess ! i fixed one on the 280 i had !

[mrzigazaga]

Hi Mate..Can any wedger safetly put their hand on their heart and say that they have NEVER experienced this...Mine does it sometimes if they are on and i go over a bump the N/S pod goes down then up or sometimes just stay's down..I know that mine has a loose connection and sorting some new plugs/Connectors is my next job..The ends of the wires become a bit fragile and need chopping off and re-wiring..My N/S pod is fed via the O/S pod..As a rule i generally turn them on and off a few times a week and keep the arms greased..My personal conclusion is that they are the least used part on a wedge...They are also exposed to the elements so probably need more attention to keep them in order...Ziga

[Danny Hoffman]

Never

[mrzigazaga]

Danny Hoffman said:

Never

Are you saying sir that you have NEVER experienced ANY problems with your pods??

[Danny Hoffman]

Both my wedges had the right hand pod stick half way up, but never had a mind of their own

[dellyend1]

Evening All,

I think I may have given myself a lesson in 'if it aint broke don't fix it' !

Took the pod out and removed motor, had a look in side, nothing obvious but gave both contacts on the brass strip a bit of a scrub and checked all connectors in the switch block etc.

Then switched powerr back on to drop pods and left pod retracted but I had left a small torch in the pod base and as it closed I think the pod caught it and stopped and now I cant get the left hand side pod to move at all

I've checked the fuses and all OK and have been trying the relays although my 350i relay board is more like a 390 se fuse board but not quite the same so not totally sure I have swapped correct rrelays but by trial and error have worked out which ones stop the right pod working.

The right pod is working fine and I have dipped and main beam to the right hand light but only dipped beam to the left hand pod which i have checked through manually lifting the pod.

Any Ideas gratefully recieved.

Cheers

Jeremy

[mrzigazaga]

Cant you manually wind the pod up from underneath?..Do it with ignition off..

[dellyend1]

Hi Ziga, yes I can wind from underneath, have not tried it yet as I can lift the pod just by pushing the back edge down and flipping it up as their is no resistance.

is it worth a shot at winding manually to reset the pod to the up position when the right hand pod is up and see if that works. I have also not tried / looked at the diodes so will hopefully get to Maplins and buy some new ones for fitting tomorrow.

Cheers

[mrzigazaga]

dellyend1 said:

is it worth a shot at winding manually to reset the pod to the up position when the right hand pod is up and see if that works.

You have nothing to lose mate..At one point my N/S pod was lifting while the O/S was lowering and that was down to the armature being 45 degrees out..This happened after removing the motor and putting it back in the wrong place by mistake although looking at it you wouldnt think it but there is a square hole that goes over a square locking plate and this needs to be the same as the opposite pod's position..If the pods exceeds its set height it will close automatically...At least mine did...Cheers...Ziga

[wooly350i]

When I was pishing about with my pod last week I reminded myself that there are a number of relays relating to the light pods, motor relay for each one, plus a control relay for the two, plus relays for the lights dip beam etc, from memory I guess the pods may have power with ignition on as they flinched when I turned the key even though the light switch was in the off position, the motor must have a rest position for up and for down so maybe that's worn/confused. I can see from stripping my old one that the nylon toothed gear has a ridge which must act as a stop point. Also when we reconnected the ball joint arm to the motor we had motor in wrong place first time so we had one up and one down and when we tried manually re setting it it just sprang into life and ended up back where we didn't want it so we disconnected it from the lift arm, powered it to where it wanted to be then pulled the battery off before re connecting it,phew.

[Wedg1e]

dellyend1 said:

I can lift the pod just by pushing the back edge down and flipping it up as their is no resistance.

Well it shouldn't do that for a start: either the pod is detached from the link rod, the crank arm is loose on the motor output shaft or the nylon gear has stripped.
I'd get the pod up, take the headlamp out and look to see if the motor is actually operating but disconnected from the pod!

[Mr Tank]

Hi

Before you start on any work on the pods, disconect the battery.

Then you will not have any trapped fingers etc.

Wind the pod up manually

Remove the light lens etc.

Remove the pod fixings.
Two bolts either side at the back and the operating arm from the pod this may be tights so remove the arm from the motor!

Remove the pod!

That will give you full access to the lift motor for you to then check the system safely.

Andy

[dellyend1]

Hi All, thanks for the guidance to date. Well had another look at things this morning and removed the pod again and then removed the lift motor.

I have manually wound the motor and this does raise lower the pod so I am discounting the shredding of gearing and when I had it all assembled, after winding the pod up with the r/h pod also lifted I then switched off the lights and both pods dropped as normal (small jump of joy) but then when switched back on only the r/h pod raised (small sinking feeling)

I've opened up the switch housing on the motor again and compared to the image from the net below and it is the same at least.



The brass strip is in contact with the blue (left hand ) contact but when I have re-connected to see if it will flip I get nothing. It does not switch across to the right (green/brown) wire.

If the green/brown wire is not getting any power, I'm assuming this is why it won't flip and is this the reason the motor is not working ?

My pea brain still has not figured out how the motor is driven. Which is the wire(s) in the 3 pin block or bullet connectors that drive the motor ?

Sorry to be a pain with all the questions, one day I may be able to add something useful for someone else

[Danny Hoffman]

From memory the 2 wires on the right of the photo are the power feeds to the motor

[dellyend1]

Morning All,

Well after some very early mornings and late evenings I have now sussed out what is wrong with the lights. It was a bloomin relay !! However, with my over zealous cleaning of the brass strip in the switch housing and brass contacts I have managed to bend the brass strip the wrong way so that I now have lights that don't really work at all. I've tried bending the brass strip back but to be honest I think I have made it worse so that the contact with the copper rivets are now non existent.

So answer I believe is to drill out the center copper rivet and either straighten the existing brass strip including a slight bend for spring tension or to replace with a new brass strip.

My question is , given that I don't have any copper rivets to hand could I use an ordinary pop rivet that I have hundreds of, or do I need to go and find a copper rivet ? Also anybody know if the top of your head what type and size the rivet should be e.g blind 1/18 etc

Thanks

All

[dellyend1]

Hi ,

Just wondering on the off chance, does anybody have a knackered pod motor that has a good switch housing and contacts etc that I could procure for beer tokens ?

Thanks

All

[wooly350i]

dellyend1 said:

Hi ,

Just wondering on the off chance, does anybody have a knackered pod motor that has a good switch housing and contacts etc that I could procure for beer tokens ?

Thanks

All

Gotta check my motor first to see whats wrong with it, evidently its the tr7 version.