Lights will not go up

[mid_life_ta]

1986 trans Am-My lights will not go up but will go down fine. They crank up manually fine. I have read all posts on this issue but I am a little confused. Do the lights have two(2) motors one to go up and one to bring them back down? Could this be just a relay or fuse issue because I dont hear any grinding or anything? Could this be the plastic gears even though I don't hear any grinding? If it is a relay or fuse which relay is it and where is it located and where do I locate the fuse? Could someone please help I am new with my TA and maybe in the future I can help out some else. Please be patient w/me I am a web designer and don't know much about fixing cars but I am trying to learn. Thank you all in advance!!

[tomahawk]

you would definitely hear it if it was a stripped gear, its quite loud. and theres only one motor per headlight. so thats odd that it wont go up but it does come down. it could be your headlight switch inside the car. might wanna try replacing that. i sure you can get it for a few bucks at a junkyard. ill ask a few people and see if i can help ya out any more. but it may be that switch.

[silver87ta]

Are the lights coming on when you hit 'on'? I had the same problem with my 87 Trans Am, only sometimes they would come up, as well (a rare occurence), but the lights did come on. Eventually though, the motors finally deteriorated until they did nothing at all. Check out this guy out on Ebay: windowmotors. I got a set of rebuilt motors for $160, then if you send in the old ones, he'll pay you $20 for each. If you do decide to do it yourself, make sure you get a Haynes manual, and about 2 hours. It's not hard, it's just tight and they dont give ya much room to work I had a much easier time when I took out the entire headlight assembly. Hope this helps ya.

[tomahawk]

ya if you do it yourself, getting the headlight assemble out of the way helps a whole lot

[mid_life_ta]

the headlights do turn on when i hit the switch inside the car but they do not come up. I can manually crank them up fine and when i hit the switch off they go down.

[mid_life_ta]

Originally Posted by silver87ta

Are the lights coming on when you hit 'on'? I had the same problem with my 87 Trans Am, only sometimes they would come up, as well (a rare occurence), but the lights did come on. Eventually though, the motors finally deteriorated until they did nothing at all. Check out this guy out on Ebay: windowmotors. I got a set of rebuilt motors for $160, then if you send in the old ones, he'll pay you $20 for each. If you do decide to do it yourself, make sure you get a Haynes manual, and about 2 hours. It's not hard, it's just tight and they dont give ya much room to work I had a much easier time when I took out the entire headlight assembly. Hope this helps ya.

the headlights do turn on when i hit the switch inside the car but they do not come up. I can manually crank them up fine and when i hit the switch off they go down.

[TRANSAMS R MY IDOL]

Actually I had the same problem with my 95 firebird. My left headlight motor is running after i turn them off for about 6 seconds. But before that it took 30 minutes of off/on movement to get thte light just to come up. So my is that your motor just like mine is about to be shot.

[xlwhellraiser]

How 'bout this for a simple answer. Fuse.
Check your fuses, I had a similar problem. My lights would go up and turn on, but not go down. It was a 20amp fuse. Just go to your fuses and look at the ones that connect headlights and guages and such, you will find the problem. I am pretty sure that might be the problem.
However if its a short, than you have to figure it out, and see where its coming from.
Good luck

P.S. Contrary to many blieves the headlights are not really that fragile (if used properly)

[mid_life_ta]

Thanks to all!! My lights now go up as well as down! I replaced the isolation relay and one actulator relay and the problem was resolved. Thanks again