popup headlights

I recently got myself a 1984 944 knowing full well that it needs a bit of work. Most of it I think I have figured out, but the headlights are baffling me. Apparantly, the headlight motor went out on a previous owner, and he/she tried to bypass it with some ghetto wiring, resulting in a melted red/green wire and a mutilated connector pin. Ok, I have all the wiring fixed, new fuse, new motor...etc. When I flip on the headlights (position 2) the headlights happily come up....but the motor doesn't stop, resulting in the headlights continuously going up and down until you flip off the headlights. I have no clue how exactly this system is supposed to work, and I've swapped the relays from the old motor to the new motor to no avail. What do you think could be the problem here? What normally tells the motor to shut off?

i think there's some contacts on the motor that are basically breaker points. from the service manual it looks as though there is a wheel that turns with the motor that has a gap on it, the points ride on this wheel so when the gap comes around the points lose contact and the motor stops. maybe your points have overheated and stuck together or are bent or something. if this doesn't help post back, i've got my car apart now so i can look at my headlight motor and try to give you some other ideas.

i was thinking of your problem today and thought of something else that may be happening. when the points on your motor open to stop the motor there should be another wire that powers up in the off position to lower the headlights, what if for some reason this wire stayed powered up in the on position also? the motor would just keep running, that might explain why changing all the parts hasn't changed the problem. see if you have two power wires at the motor in the on position. i bet you should have one in the on position and another in the off position.

carsonmx114 is correct in that there's a switch to stop the headlight pods at the right place. however, the first place i'd check is the relay connected to the side of the motor. before you say you've checked that read on...

the correct relay is a single pole change over relay. if you use a relay that is normally open (with no 87a?) the pods will just cycle like you describe. it's a common failure mode of the relay and has happened on both my 944 turbo and 924. i initially bought a general purpose relay off the shelf not realising that it wasn't a change over type and it did exactly the same. then when i spotted the missing leg on the relay i got the correct type and it worked fine. what i think has happened is that your old relay is dead and that you new relay is too or is the wrong type.

hth,
j.