I have 2 1990 760T SWs. 1 has a headlight problem where switch to highbeams results in no headlights but switch back to lowbeams and headlights come on. The other cars high and lowbeams work fine. I was going to swap the headlight high/lowbeam relay (double relay marked both "A" and "E") to see if the problem followed the relay.

So, question: how do I remove the relay? Does it just pull out? It seems stuck and not wanting to pull out.

Thx.

 

Before you bother to pull the bad relay, try cycling between low and high beam rapidly for 30 or 40 cycles. The contacts often get carboned up and the fairly rapid cycling will burn the points clean...sometimes.

 

Or is there a catch or some sort of release mechanism?

 

Well, unscrewed the Phillips keeper screw holding the relay panel and pulled the whole relay panel out from under the console cavity (all this from the front pass floorboard). Noticed that 4 plastic clips were holding the double "AE" headlight relay tight against the panel. Pried those tabs loose a bit and removed the relay.

Then removed plastic cap off the relay and noticed the 2 pairs of relays that control low beam and high beam. Uses a tiny curved nail file to barely clean the contacts (2 contacts per coil, 2 coils in the "AE" relay).

Reinstalled relay without cap and watched the relays work when switching left stalk between hi and low beams. Recapped the relay, reinstalled, screwed it back in and hope now it works for years.

 

Well, no workee. Will remove relay. And reflow the solder connections after verifying with DMM that it's bad.

 

Hmmm ... when relay was removed from vehicle continuity worked from/to all pins as it should (we closed/opened the relays manually to test). We noticed tho that the lobeam relay was sticky ... wouldn't close all the way. Turns out the contacts were kinda loose. We removed the solder for both relays, cleaned both, reinstalled and resoldered everything and *viola* works like a charm.

I don't know if I could have done it myself ... good thing I had a electronics engineer friend who likes this stuff. Took him 30 mins to R&R the relays.

 

Wow...That's great! Oh...viola is a large violin...voila is the word you meant.

 

That's funny ... my son is a violist and I guess my fingers got used to typing viola instead of voila (of course).