1976 Lincoln Continental

Hopefully you can help. I have a '76 Continental, if you know this model car you know that it has headlight covers that cover the headlights when not in use. They used to work, but now they just stay open all the time, which is no big deal but i would like to get them working again. I imagine its is a vacuum operated device, but im just not sure as to where to start to try to fix it, can ya help?

Not sure how much I can help but I have 3 of the 1979s. The most common culprit is a little valve. On my cars it is just behind the radiator support. Kind of looks like if you put 4 or 5 quarters together with connections on each side for hoses. It isn't very big but they tend to leak. Only one of my cars will hold the air all the time. The other two I can park and a day or two later, my headlight doors are open. Assuming you have good air in your canisters, the other obvious thing would be if there is a cut or hole in an air hose going to the headlights. I would try find a new valve first and when you hook back up the air hoses, get some shrink wrap from Radio Shack or someplace and use that to "seal" the connection. About 1/2 inch to an inch on the end overlapping the connection makes a good seal. I think there is another larger air valve in the car but I'm not sure where that is or if it affects the headlights. I'm no mechanic, just a "poke around and see if I can break it worse" type.