slant nose headlight options?

[911tracker85]

I am moving toward work on the body of my SC/930 conversion project. has aftermarket SN fenders with mazda pop up headlights.

I am looking for alternate ideas to trying to rebuild/restore the mazda mechanisms.

have been searching threads and found a number showing the popup filled in and the headlights mounted in the front bumper.

I have seen but now cannot find ideas that put a clear cover over the buckets with fixed headlights mounted.

appreciate any ideas.

[gumba]

DP used 914 motors and headlight assemblies. The headlight cover was different to match the fender contours. If your going to drive it on the street you should check the headlight height laws. The lights in the lower valance won’t work.

[911tracker85]

The lights in the lower valance won’t work.

I suspected that.

[dap930]

Bob,

I totally rebuilt and re-engineered the linkage on my Slantnose headlight mechanisms. The basic problem is the Mazda headlight motor linkage arm is used to support the weight of the headlight in the "up" position. There is slop in the motor shaft exiting the motor. This causes headlight shake when hitting bumps. The original "up" stops load the linkage to help prevent shake, but were not effective. I added a bushing for the motor output shaft in the motor mounting bracket to support the loads. I installed pins in all rotating points to replace threaded bolts that were used to remove slop. I added a second adjustable linkage arm with a roller pined on the end that rotates up when the headlight is raised, which then wedges the arm roller against a ramp welded to the upper headlight frame to support the weight and remove any linkage slop. My headlights are now rock solid.

I have round headlights installed and it has been several years since I did this mod. I do have some pictures of the mods I did, but I do not have dimensions. I would have to remove a headlight assembly to measure the dimensions. I do have a spare set of rectangular headlight mechanisms, which if memory serves me is what you have. I believe the rectangular headlights do not travel as far to the raised position, so linkage changes would differ.

Below is one of my pictures of the linkage mod, but it does not show all the details that went into the mod.

[911tracker85]

thanks. yes they have the rectangle headlights.

[krasuskyp]

great work / post Dennis - very nicely done and shared

[Ken911]

Does anyone know if a kit is available to swap from the square lights to round

[dap930]

Ken,

Do your headlight mechanisms use Mazda motors? Do you have welded in buckets in the fenders where the headlight mechanism mounts? If so, then they are probably from Golden Coachworks. They could be modified for 7" headlight bulbs.

[1975porsche]

I had read somewhere that you could modify 944 headlight mechanics to work !

[911tracker85]

mine are the coachworks, have a receipt and they match the description.

modify 944 headlight mechanics to work

ironically I have considered removing the headlight mechanical stuff on my 951 and replace with a bracket that lets you open/close manually. after all it is mainly a track car but want to keep street legal.

so anyone have more info on this?

[911tracker85]

started searching on ebay, found a site that makes a lot of stuff for RX7s. found these.

they are very sinister looking, I LIKE THAT. sent request for fitment dimensions.

[Yan2947]

Just purchase a slant nose conversion/track car. Trying to get it more streetable. The passenger side headlight motor is bad. The headlights were in the up position and are not wired but getting power to the driver's side causes the motor to continuously open and close. The passenger side is not functioning when I hard wire it. There are no relays for the headlights. What causes the motor to open and stop and close and then stop? I have attached some photos for reference. Also, is there a way to convert these to round headlights? Thanks!

[Yan2947]

It looks like the driver's side has a different motor along with an attached relay. Not sure how the relay should be wired...

[dap930]

Yan2947,

The driver's side motor is a Mazda headlight motor mechanism. The passenger side motor I do not recognize, but it should work similar to the Mazda motor. The motor that does not run may not be bad, it could be locked up or the internal switching contacts in the gearbox drive could need cleaning/adjustment. Below is a schematic I put together that shows how the Golden Coachworks/Mazda headlight mechanisms work as wired in my slantnose.


The headlight mechanism for round headlights travels further up than the square headlight mechanism. The slotted drive arm that attaches to the headlight bracket is longer on the round headlight mechanism. The square headlight mechanism could probably be modified to a round headlight, but it would take some metal work. You would have incorporate a 7" headlight bucket, lengthen the side skirts (since the headlight comes up further out of the fender) and lengthen the slotted motor linkage arm. Below is a picture of my 7" headlight bucket.




I modified my headlight mechanism linkage to get rid of headlight shake when going over bumps. It is shown starting on page 3 of the link below.

The definitive aftermarket slantnose, pop up headlight thread

[Yan2947]

dap930, thanks for the diagram and info. The car I just got is setup for track and the previous owner cut out most of the wiring and put in his own Ron Francis Wiring. I'm trying to make it more comfortable on the road. Do you pig tail the wiring from one headlight and headlight motor to the other one? Or do you run separate lines from the fuse panel? What light switch did you put in at the dash? 944? It would not be easy to switch to round headlights without fabrication skills which I don't have. I will make it work, clean it up eventually paint the buckets after its all working. Also, I just ordered new 3d printed bushings in case anyone needs some. I only asked for the large ones so I will have extra. Hopefully they will fit and work perfectly.

[911tracker85]

one option I am considering is going manual on the headlight buckets. I have a friend who made brackets for 944s to remove all the elec motor/linkages. then raise or lower the headlights manually. the bracket held the lights in the up position, just push in the bracket to release and lower.

we'll see. and I really appreciate that wiring sketch. was getting ready to start searching for that to see if mine work. PO had chopped up the wiring on one side.

[Ken911]

Originally Posted by dap930

Ken,

Do your headlight mechanisms use Mazda motors? Do you have welded in buckets in the fenders where the headlight mechanism mounts? If so, then they are probably from Golden Coachworks. They could be modified for 7" headlight bulbs.

there are no welded in buckets in mine.

[dap930]

Yan2947

The headlight wiring harness was provided with the kit from Golden Coachworks when I did the slantnose conversion. But it can be recreated using the schematic. The wiring harness from each headlight mechanism was routed to the "retract relay" mounted in the front of the truck. Then the wiring for 12vdc power is connected to the fuse locations on the fuse panel and then to the "retract relay". So, I have multiple wire connections to some of the relay contacts, but those connections could be made in the wiring before connecting to the relay. The original wiring harness that came with the kit did not have connectors for the wiring from the headlight motors to the "retract relay" I did install connectors in the harness for each headlight bucket so the headlight mechanism could be easily removed from the headlight bucket. Also, the wire colors leading from the Mazda motors are the Mazda factory colors. The wire colors for wires used to connect to the "retract relay" were what were used to wire the kit harness.

These is no need for a separate switch to operate the headlight mechanisms. The way it is wired, the headlights raise up when the headlights are turned on, and lower when turned off. Note that there are two diodes that block power to the high beam circuit when low beams are on and vice versa.

[ChrisP911]

Originally Posted by dap930

Yan2947

The headlight wiring harness was provided with the kit from Golden Coachworks when I did the slantnose conversion. But it can be recreated using the schematic. The wiring harness from each headlight mechanism was routed to the "retract relay" mounted in the front of the truck. Then the wiring for 12vdc power is connected to the fuse locations on the fuse panel and then to the "retract relay". So, I have multiple wire connections to some of the relay contacts, but those connections could be made in the wiring before connecting to the relay. The original wiring harness that came with the kit did not have connectors for the wiring from the headlight motors to the "retract relay" I did install connectors in the harness for each headlight bucket so the headlight mechanism could be easily removed from the headlight bucket. Also, the wire colors leading from the Mazda motors are the Mazda factory colors. The wire colors for wires used to connect to the "retract relay" were what were used to wire the kit harness.

These is no need for a separate switch to operate the headlight mechanisms. The way it is wired, the headlights raise up when the headlights are turned on, and lower when turned off. Note that there are two diodes that block power to the high beam circuit when low beams are on and vice versa.

Where on the headlight switch is it wired. Also how do you wire the retract relay.

[911tracker85]

from your diagram I played with my units and could get them to go up and down.

I recall seeing a small rubber covered block in the trunk connected to the headlight wiring.

rather than recreate that mess I am planning to have a up/dn toggle switch on the dash.