these TA pop-up headlights suck!! Heeeeelp!!!
08-24-2005, 09:44 AM
#21
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i got a tip for you guyz.....always turn the lights on or off at a stop...never while the car is moving...the air pressure force against the lids will ruin the gears.......i've never had any headlight trouble...but i never open or close um moving.Now guess how i know about this problem.....
08-24-2005, 10:05 AM
#23
Originally Posted by 99PontTA
i got a tip for you guyz.....always turn the lights on or off at a stop...never while the car is moving...the air pressure force against the lids will ruin the gears.......i've never had any headlight trouble...but i never open or close um moving.Now guess how i know about this problem.....
08-24-2005, 03:37 PM
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Originally Posted by Tally TransAm
i stripped the brass gear FOUR ******* TIMES (kept removing it and doing quarter turns). and it is less than 2 months old. the first time it stripped was less than one week after installing it. at least the plastic gear gave me 4 years of service
everytime it was out, even the first time, i tightened the motor to the housing, and checked it like every two days. and it was always, and still is tight.
i dont know what to do but this **** is beyond pissing me off. for the last week and a half i just yanked the headlight fuse and just drive with the fog lights so i dont have to listen to the damn noise
i need to get another gear but i dont wanna spend another $50 on it if it is gonna strip out again. im wondering if i got one made of different/defective brass that was softer
everytime it was out, even the first time, i tightened the motor to the housing, and checked it like every two days. and it was always, and still is tight.
i dont know what to do but this **** is beyond pissing me off. for the last week and a half i just yanked the headlight fuse and just drive with the fog lights so i dont have to listen to the damn noise
i need to get another gear but i dont wanna spend another $50 on it if it is gonna strip out again. im wondering if i got one made of different/defective brass that was softer
I don't suspect it was due to the brass being bad. They are made from large pieces/lengths of bar stock brass so several gears are CNCd from one "chunk" plus each one is inspected and goes through a test fit/quality control process.
It is more likely that a) even though your tabs are tight on the motor your plastic housing is CRACKED. Yes, while this doesn't happen often, I have seen this as well. The tabs are very tight but right under the tabs the plastic can crack. b) the control module is bad combined with slight play between the metal motor housing and plastic gear housing. Or, both
That would be my guess anyway.
08-24-2005, 04:02 PM
#29
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Originally Posted by 99PontTA
i got a tip for you guyz.....always turn the lights on or off at a stop...never while the car is moving...the air pressure force against the lids will ruin the gears.......i've never had any headlight trouble...but i never open or close um moving.Now guess how i know about this problem.....
08-25-2005, 08:55 AM
#30
Originally Posted by 99PontTA
ok......keep on replacing um......
To whom are you accusing of ragging? Surely not me, as I was asking a simple question.
Originally Posted by Brent94Z
It's possible that your headlight control module has gone bad and is not shutting off 12v to the headlight motor.
08-25-2005, 08:58 AM
#31
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Originally Posted by JD_AMG
Ive never opened my lights while moving, and my gear(stock) is stripped.
nobody ever drives while its starting to dark and everyone always pulls over and stops to put their headlights on......give me a break....
08-25-2005, 09:07 AM
#33
Originally Posted by 99PontTA
yeah sure you didn't...i believe you nobody ever drives while its starting to dark and everyone always pulls over and stops to put their headlights on......give me a break....You are advocating the very thing you are chastising JD_AMG for not doing!
Oh man, now that's funny.
08-25-2005, 02:45 PM
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Originally Posted by JasonWW
OK, now I'm going to poke fun at you.
You are advocating the very thing you are chastising JD_AMG for not doing!
Oh man, now that's funny.
You are advocating the very thing you are chastising JD_AMG for not doing!
Oh man, now that's funny.
08-25-2005, 03:20 PM
#35
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Oh man. Well I have played the headlight game for a while now. Got some of Brent's gears 
. My humble prognosis is a combination of the two major themes here. Load sensors are dumb, and the way the actual motor is attached is also no good. If either one starts to go south, you will get the big grindy grindy. It's sort of a chicken and the egg sort of deal. The load sensor will not register correctly if the worm gear isnt making full contact (poorly attached)and therefore slowly eating away at the ring gear...but if the load sensor isn't working correctly, the worm gear starts slowly eating away at the ring gear (exacerbating the poorly attached problem).
This is of course, madness. My question is, beyond the seemingly temporary fixes we are all doing..new gears...new motors..new load sensors...fix the stops...is it possible to reengineer the stock unit with stops incorporated in the actual motor or gearing, therby circumventing the load sensor stupidity? Or are we stuck with load sensors and bandaids for them?
All together we probably have more hours screwing with these motors and the mechanisms they work than the GM clown that decided to go with them, so certainly we should be able to think of something, no?
. My humble prognosis is a combination of the two major themes here. Load sensors are dumb, and the way the actual motor is attached is also no good. If either one starts to go south, you will get the big grindy grindy. It's sort of a chicken and the egg sort of deal. The load sensor will not register correctly if the worm gear isnt making full contact (poorly attached)and therefore slowly eating away at the ring gear...but if the load sensor isn't working correctly, the worm gear starts slowly eating away at the ring gear (exacerbating the poorly attached problem).This is of course, madness. My question is, beyond the seemingly temporary fixes we are all doing..new gears...new motors..new load sensors...fix the stops...is it possible to reengineer the stock unit with stops incorporated in the actual motor or gearing, therby circumventing the load sensor stupidity? Or are we stuck with load sensors and bandaids for them?
All together we probably have more hours screwing with these motors and the mechanisms they work than the GM clown that decided to go with them, so certainly we should be able to think of something, no?
08-25-2005, 03:28 PM
#36
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honestly i've owned alot of fbodies over the past 35 years .........i learned the hard way what tears up the headlamp gears...DON"T turn um on while yer moving.....i've never had a failure since..current 99 ta has 67k on it and gets driven alot at night...no trouble with the gears........
08-25-2005, 04:42 PM
#37
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Originally Posted by 99PontTA
yeah sure you didn't...i believe you nobody ever drives while its starting to dark and everyone always pulls over and stops to put their headlights on......give me a break....
08-25-2005, 04:55 PM
#38
Originally Posted by Brent94Z
It's possible that your headlight control module has gone bad and is not shutting off 12v to the headlight motor. However, if the metal motor housing is tight on the plastic gear housing I have not seen the brass gears to fail even under this condition... what happens is the motor gets VERY hot because it is still trying to turn but is not.
I don't suspect it was due to the brass being bad. They are made from large pieces/lengths of bar stock brass so several gears are CNCd from one "chunk" plus each one is inspected and goes through a test fit/quality control process.
It is more likely that a) even though your tabs are tight on the motor your plastic housing is CRACKED. Yes, while this doesn't happen often, I have seen this as well. The tabs are very tight but right under the tabs the plastic can crack. b) the control module is bad combined with slight play between the metal motor housing and plastic gear housing. Or, both That would be my guess anyway.
I don't suspect it was due to the brass being bad. They are made from large pieces/lengths of bar stock brass so several gears are CNCd from one "chunk" plus each one is inspected and goes through a test fit/quality control process.
It is more likely that a) even though your tabs are tight on the motor your plastic housing is CRACKED. Yes, while this doesn't happen often, I have seen this as well. The tabs are very tight but right under the tabs the plastic can crack. b) the control module is bad combined with slight play between the metal motor housing and plastic gear housing. Or, both
That would be my guess anyway.because i went over this headlight motor casing for like two hours one night. took it all apart and everything (dont recommend this, i didnt know how many little pieces were gonna come flying outta it). the motor housing and gear housing are completely intact. and the motor housing is extremely tight against the gear house, in fact i wedged a screw driver between the worm gear and the ring gear the last time i tightened in down to decrease the gap between them. (worked for the longest this time, 3 weeks no problems). but evidently that wasnt enough.
no i have to hunt down another headlight motor, or buy another brass gear to strip out again
08-25-2005, 09:35 PM
#39
Originally Posted by lo_jack
My question is, beyond the seemingly temporary fixes we are all doing..new gears...new motors..new load sensors...fix the stops...is it possible to reengineer the stock unit with stops incorporated in the actual motor or gearing, therby circumventing the load sensor stupidity? Or are we stuck with load sensors and bandaids for them?
The only true fix I can see besides replacing the whole thing with a fixed headlight is to replace the motors with linear actuators. They tend to run about $100ea roughly for about the size we would need and they use limit switches. They would be slower, but are stronger. I'm not sure how it would wire into the factory switch as I haven't really gave it a lot of thought, but it can probably be done.
08-26-2005, 08:58 AM
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Can you tell me more about these linear actuators? They may have more applications than just the headlights. Also if you know where the load sensor is, would it be possible to feed it a different signal instead of the one it sees from a [failing] unit?
As in, would it be possible to trick the load sensor into "seeing" a different signal, which we would fix at a certain voltage/impedence for a set amount of time, allowing hte motor to turn until the light was up or down (should be the same time)?
Just thinking out loud here.
As in, would it be possible to trick the load sensor into "seeing" a different signal, which we would fix at a certain voltage/impedence for a set amount of time, allowing hte motor to turn until the light was up or down (should be the same time)?
Just thinking out loud here.