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Headlight Door/Vacuum line help needed SOLVED!

Started by timmycharger, February 26, 2018, 06:55:32 PM

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timmycharger

The headlight doors worked fine back in 2002 before I took everything apart and now that it's back together, the doors only go up and do not come back down.

I checked some threads on this site and determined that the yellow lined hose goes to the top of the actuator, the no stripe one goes to the bottom and the green stripe one goes to the can. I hooked it up that way and they don't go down. What is strange is that they feel like they are fighting me when I try to manually pull them down, unless I pull the line from the T behind the grille and then I can.

When I first tried it, I had my old switch in there and they doors didn't do anything. I pulled that out and bought a repro unit and like I said, the doors only go up but not down.

As  you can see in the pics, my setup is not stock. I lost my original can years ago and use an aftermarket one that I have going to the booster as well.  Will this even work? I have the big hose coming from the manifold to the can, then from the can I have a line that goes to the booster with a T that goes back to the switch.  I tried to make this as simple as possible but I may have made it more complicated.   Any suggestions on how to run the lines cleaner so they work with what I have?  I have read about people bypassing the can completely, only thing is you can't close them once the engine is off but I didn't test this.

Any feedback is appreciated.

timmycharger

 :2thumbs:

Just 6T9 CHGR

The doors should shut when vacuum is taken away from the diaphragm.   When you turn them off, can you confirm that the vacuum is actually cut off from the diaphragm or is vacuum still being applied?  Possibly a faulty switch....is the arm on the electrical part of the switch fully engaging the plastic vacuum slide portion of the switch?
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


timmycharger

Thanks for the input, I will be checking the switch and seeing what happens to the vacuum.  

If I lift one headlight door manually, should the other one go in the opposite direction?

J-440

 I had the exact problem.  Would go up but not come down and the switch on the dash wouldn't budge.  You need a small vent hole in the line going to the main canister closest to the fender.  You can actually get too much vacuum and the doors won't close.  Supposedly there should be a small leak at the switch in the dash, but that's a bitch to get to so I just made a small hole at the line and concealed it. I used one of those vacuum tube line extenders you get from a parts store.  White, T-style fitting. 
68 R/T, 440/727 6-speed, SC G-machine...black suede

timmycharger

Interesting. I would have thought it would need as much vacuum as possible to pull it down.  Regardless I got them working with my setup as pictured above.  After reading a thread on here where someone put compressed air through the hoses I did the same and bingo!  Looked like insects made a home in a few of the lines but it shot out like a bullet. They go up and down flawlessly now.

Just 6T9 CHGR

Chris' '69 Charger R/T