Mr.Highway

I'm going to be installing a new motor because I ruined my old one. How long should I expect for the gear to last in this new motor. The description of the product states that the gear will last a lot longer than OEM gears found in factory motors.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

They will last decades as long as the motor doesn't pull away from the gear body. (The two are held together by metal tabs.)

The catch is... the attachment of the motor to the body stinks and can pull away on you at any time. (This even strips the metal gear options.)

Camaroo1

They actually last a very long IF you don't open the headlights while you are moving. Opening them while moving causes huge stress on the gears from the air hitting the opening lid and ruins them quickly.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

^ Opening while moving wouldn't put any significant stress on the gear teeth. They will see some additional stress when opening or closing against moving air, but noting like they get every time the door opens or shuts and the motor is banging against the steel door stops.

The gear teeth failures are usually at the full up or full down positions where the motors are hitting the stops. (This is why the 180* fix will often work as a quickie repair.)

Camaroo1

BS open um at 50 mph....usually only get away with that a few times before they will be stripped.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Without getting in to the finer points of engineering statics and dynamics, here's an experiment you an do to gauge the stress on the gears at speed.

- Put your hand out of the window while driving at speed and feel the force on your hand.
- Hold a headlight door while its closing and feel the force on your hand.

^ There are no significant forces here.

- Hold a hammer in your hand and feel the weight.
- Whack your hand with that same moving hammer and feel the impact.

^ This is what the headlight door gear experiences every time the door opens all the way or shuts all the way and hits the metal stop and is a significant force.


If you still don't believe that, please provide examples of where people's gears have stripped mid-gear due to the opening at speed phenomena. This would be evidenced by headlights that open or shut half-way. (Lot's of older cars have had this issue but I've never seen a significant number of posts where this happens on a late model Firebird.)

Mr.Highway

Another thing, do you think the metal stop will strip my gear? The plastic stop that was on the metal fell off. I no longer have the stop, will it strip a gear that way?

trans_am7935

iTrader: (15)

If you flip your head lights up with the car engine off it will make it more prominent. When the gear gets to the metal stops, then it continues to try and open/close the motor until a certain amount of stress is placed on the motor before it stops. The motor does not stop till this stress is applied. You can test this by removing the bar that connects the headlight to the motor, and try and flip them up, the motor will continue to spin for 5-7 seconds before stopping.

The problem with this is that the motor starts to slightly push itself away from the gear and this is how they strip. This is why the motor can still operate, but makes noise at the top or bottom. It only strips the tips off the gear. This is the same concept on how a ring and pinion usually breaks as the carrier will stress or become dis-formed under load, making less tooth contact breaking the teeth. This is why the brass gears are a popular upgrade, as it gives more strength to the turning gear which was originally made out of nylon. The motor gear is made out of steel. Also, the brass gear upgrade comes with a housing brace that supports (braces) the spinning shaft and keeps if from flexing with all 3 mounting bolts, making a deflection of the motor housing less likely and hence lowering the chance of the gears pulling away from each other.

The main point i am trying to put here is that the only thing that is harmful as stated a few times here already is when the motor hits the stops and actually stresses it's self to death. I would not have any worry as to having to flip up your headlights at any legal speed on a state highway, I would be more concerned about how many times you have to flip these them up and down. I have had the brass gears in mine for about 5 years now, and have not had one stripped gear since. my original ones stripped after only owning the car for 5 months.

I hope this explanation has helped others understand how the motors actually kill the gears and moving at any legal speed should not inhibit the operation or functionality of the headlights in any way.


no, it will just allow your headlight to close slightly farther, or open just a little bit more. and probably make a clunk when it opens/closes. whichever side is missing.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

I don't think it can hurt. If anything, it might take the shock off of some of the impact when the arm hits the stop. Here's a fix for the missing plastic bumpers: https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...r-bumpers.html

Another thing to note is that the plastic gears have a shock absorber built in to the middle. (The gear shaft engages a rubber insert that then contacts the gear.) Some of the metal gears take this out of the equation, so I recommend that anyone going to metal gears get the kind which will accept that rubber insert.

Mr.Highway

Thanks, that was really helpful!
For now I am going to replace the gear with a nylon one. I will order the brass one soon and then as soon as the nylon one fails I will replace it with the brass/aluminum.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Wait until you see how expensive they are. You can have 20 nylon gears for the price of one aluminum one. (Brass is too expensive these days...)

trans_am7935

iTrader: (15)

yes, forgot to mention that. i have the one with the rubber in it. oh and dont be shy on the grease when putting the motor back together.

mine cost $40 per gear set, just FYI.

Mr.Highway

I installed the motor and connected everything like it was supposed to go. The problem I am having is that when my headlights are off my driver side headlights is down and my passenger headlights stays up. When I turn my headlights on my driver side goes up and my passenger headlights goes down. I don't know what the problem is.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

If its the old motor, I'd check to make sure the arm is correctly mounted in the correct orientation.

If its a new motor, some have seen them delivered wired backwards. (The easy fix for that is to just switch the motor wires in the connector.)

Mr.Highway

If its a new motor, some have seen them delivered wired backwards. (The easy fix for that is to just switch the motor wires in the connector.)


I know I connected everything right the first time. I even took pictures of how the original motor was connected so that I could use it as a reference.
Well it was a remanufactured motor. That's what I did I moved the wires around, and now they work. Could it be possible that by switching the wires around I could ruin something?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

No. That's how the motors work. They are wired one way for up and the car reverses the polarity to make it go down.

There was just some person who did the rebuild and put the wrong wire in the wrong slot in the connector body and had the red/black reversed. Easy to happen and unfortunately common.

The last motor I got was a little worse... One of the wires had a cut in it and the factory just twisted the broken ends together inside the wire loom. They didn't even use a wire nut or crimp connector. That little job didn't last long...