Bad Flip-up Headlight?
Bad Flip-up Headlight? Here's the problem guys.
I gotta 99' TA. Everything was good to go until today, I turned/flipped up my headlights to clean em up, when I shut them off/flipped them back down, I hear a noise of the motor I think.??? You can hear it for about 5 seconds.
Can anyone tell me what this problem is?
Thanks
I gotta 99' TA. Everything was good to go until today, I turned/flipped up my headlights to clean em up, when I shut them off/flipped them back down, I hear a noise of the motor I think.??? You can hear it for about 5 seconds.
Can anyone tell me what this problem is?
Thanks
Happens on every 4th gen firebird made eventually. Need more than just a brass gear. Go to BFranker's web site and it will explain everything. You can try the free fix first by taking the arm off the headlight assembly and rotating the motor 180 degrees. This puts the "bad" part of the gear on the opposite side. It will last for awhile this way especially if you don't do alot of night driving. It will eventually strip again as the main problem is not the gear even though it is plastic.
The biggest problem with the headlight motors was the way they attached the motor to the plastic gear housing with four bent tabs. Thats all that holds the 2 together and the tabs fail over time and start to bend away which causes play in between the two pieces. This allows the gear to move away from the metal worm drive just enough that it strips the gear. However, if you were to place a piece of plastic strip behind the gear, pressing it into the worm drive, thus eliminating the slack in between them it actually works again even when it has been stripped. I still recommend the brass gear in addition to this but I've stripped the brass gears as well. It's the play between the 2 that is the real issue. Basically it is a design flaw. Good luck!!
The biggest problem with the headlight motors was the way they attached the motor to the plastic gear housing with four bent tabs. Thats all that holds the 2 together and the tabs fail over time and start to bend away which causes play in between the two pieces. This allows the gear to move away from the metal worm drive just enough that it strips the gear. However, if you were to place a piece of plastic strip behind the gear, pressing it into the worm drive, thus eliminating the slack in between them it actually works again even when it has been stripped. I still recommend the brass gear in addition to this but I've stripped the brass gears as well. It's the play between the 2 that is the real issue. Basically it is a design flaw. Good luck!!
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