BirdMan(LS1)

Have any replaced a headlamp gear before? Every time I turn my lights on or off I get a grinding noise in my headlamp motor. This also happens every time I lock & unlock my doors with key fob.

A buddy of mine said this happen to him and it was the gear. But he just replaced the whole headlamp for $200. The gear is only $30, so I prefer to change gear. Does anyone know how to do this?

WS6 Kid

iTrader: (1)

Same thing happened to me, it was the gear. Take the whole headlight assembly out. then remove the motor and replace the gear inside. it aint to hard once you get the motor off.

BirdMan(LS1)

A was also told that I could reverse the current gear because it's 360 deg and the othet side hasn't been used. Does this work?

WS6 Kid

iTrader: (1)

Yea, the gear is circular but its not that wide and seriously after taking the headlight off and the motor off you should just replace it.

When I changed mine it looked like the teeth were stripped all the way across the gear, I'm not sure if just rotating it would help.

BirdMan(LS1)

Thanks, How long did it take you? And what should I look out for?

99BLACKBIRD

iTrader: (1)

The headlight assembly only used half of the gear. Unplug the battery first, it will scare the hell out of you if you have your hand down there and it starts trying to close. Manually raise the headlight. Take the housing off the headlight. Take the nut off the motor shaft. Pull of the up/down lever off the shaft. The headlight is going to fall down so keep an elbow against it or use a rag to prop it up. The shaft has two squared off sides, and two round. Depending on which one is visible, manually, using the manual raise/lower **** on the top of the headlight assem., spin the shaft 180 degrees. You have to be pretty precise because you will stripped teeth on either side of the good 180 degrees. Hook the up/down lever back on and put the nut back on. Don't tighten too tight yet. Now connect your battery again and see if it goes up and down. If it does, tighten it pretty tight. If not, lake off the lever and rotate it one way or another a little. It sucks because you can miss it by one stripped tooth.Once it's there, put the housing on and that should cover you until you get your new gear. Or, just live with the noise for a week and order one from Tbyrne.

WS6 Kid

iTrader: (1)

It took me about two hours total. The hardest part is getting the motor off of the assembly. If I remember correctly I didnt even remove the entire headlight assembly cause you pretty much have to take off the whole front fascia to do so. I removed the plastic bezel from the headlight and I removed the plastic covers from underneath the car(that attach to the valance) and then got underneath and removed the motor from the headlight. There are three bolts that hold it. Once you pull the motor off its pretty easy to open up. When you undo the motor the headlight will move up and down freely. Watch out though, my dad let the headlight go while I had my hand underneath it and it pinched the hell out of me

****, now that I think about all it took, it was kinda a pain in the ***, although it was my first time and i'm sure I could do it faster now. If your car's under warranty I would go and bitch to the dealer about it but otherwise its worth the money saved.

WS6 Kid

iTrader: (1)

Much better put

VIP1

Sticky in the "Pontiac Firebird 1967-2002" section:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/pontiac-firebird-1967-2002/177470-firebird-headlights-all-comments-questions-regarding-headlights-go-here.html

BirdMan(LS1)

Thanks for the help.... I should be able to di it with ease now.

Muffracing

You don't have to take the front bumper off. Just get some extensions and a swivel. Gear wrenches are hand too.