Rebuilding a headlight motor

[screamingchicken88]

Hey there. Just bought my '88 Formula w/ 305 TBI, a great car in my opinion. Anyway I will be registering it soon, and it will most likely fail because of the headlights. One doesn't pop up, or it goes very sloooow. I call it lazy eye. I found out that the motors for these headlights cost and arm and a leg, but I found some rebuilt ones on eBay. They run around $60. Is there a way to rebuild one myself, or do I just have to pony up the dough?

[screamingchicken88]

by the way, the motor works but I think the gears are stripped, the "cap" on top of it spins but the arm only moves a little.

[Jeremy]

Copied from WS6.com :

There is a little plastic gear that has probably stripped out inside the headlight mechanism. This is only a fix if the motor is still working, but makes a very loud buzzing sound.

1. Manually crank malfunctioning headlamp to the full up position.
2. Remove black plastic shroud around headlamp to gain easier access to bolts for motor.
3. Remove motor. It is held on by 3 bolts. Disconnect actuating arm from motor shaft. This is held on by one nut on the end of the motor shaft. It requires a 10mm wrench for all 4 fasteners.
4. Take the motor to the work bench and carefully pry off the from the gear box. I had to put the motor in a vise and tap the edge of the cover with a screwdriver and hammer to pop it off.
5. Once the cover is off, you will see a nylon gear about 2 inches in diameter. There should be a spot on it where the teeth are damaged or ground off from the metal gear that meshes with it. Pick the gear straight up and rotate it 180 degrees and re-install it. This should move the location on the teeth where the headlamp is at full up or down.
6. Use some adhesive or silicone sealant to glue the cover back on. Re-install the motor in the reverse order.

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So, if your gear is stripped, a temporary solution would be to flip the gear around and use the good teeth until you can afford a replacement assembly. Also, this was written for 4th gens, so the bolt sizes and locations might not be identical, but the idea is the same.

[Midnight Sun]

BUY A NEW HEADLAMP MOTOR.

NO ONE CANT AFFORD 60 DOLLARS.

[corky]

BUY A NEW HEADLAMP MOTOR.

NO ONE CANT AFFORD 60 DOLLARS.


I can't, especially for a turd gen.

[Jeremy]

BUY A NEW HEADLAMP MOTOR.

NO ONE CANT AFFORD 60 DOLLARS.

Hm, $60, or free. I'm going to go with free. Spend the $60 on a bottle of your favorite alcohol to help you forget that you own a 3rdgen.

[Midnight Sun]

Hm, $60, or free. I'm going to go with free. Spend the $60 on a bottle of your favorite alcohol to help you forget that you own a 3rdgen.


God... so true.


BTW. I have a headlight motor I can part with. 10 bucks plus shipping. I cant remember what side it is for... I will check if anyone is interested.

[The Avenger]

eh I'd replace it instead of trying to fix it!