so it drops fine but when it hits the bottom it makes the noise for several seconds? if so then YES that is definitely a stripped gear.

Here is a video for reference (first 20 seconds is all you need to see):

 

Open-to-close, the gear only rotates 180*. That is why you hear the stripped teeth in one direction and not the other. (It doesn't fully rotate back round to the problem area.)

There are some that have had success with flipping the gear to use the other 180* of teeth, but I did not.

 

it worked for me for about a half dozen raise/lower cycles then the teeth stripped on the rising (use to do like the video) and when it started on the rising I had to lift the light the last little bit to get it fully open and get it to stop. Now I've got the good metal gears with the t-brace and rubber bumper setup.

 

Damn fine video! I wish I'd seen it when I did my replacement. Anyway, I installed a metal gear in one of mine once (and that metal gear was twice as much as the nylon one) and I epoxied it, tie wrapped it like in video, and it still exploded apart after a few weeks, so the metal gear became a paperweight. So, I bought a cheap replacement motor assy on Rockauto.com for about $70 something. The AC Delco ones are twice as much.
Here is thread for Rockauto
Pontiac
year
model
engine
body-exterior
Headlamp motor

 

I searched "Rodney Dickman headlight gear," but only found info about his brass gear, nothing on the T-Bar mod.

 

Thanks for the Video Bro!

 

The other gear thread you bumped has the link to the Dickman gears. They use the rubber insert and stock t-bar setup. (There is no mod to the t-bar with either option.) I would expect the gears without the stock rubber t-bar insert will put more stress on the gear teeth.

 

could a bad relay cause this too cause this too, mine comes up and down when i hit the unlock botton then when closes i hear a grinding noise for a couple seconds then stops so i pulled the fuses cause i rarely drive my car at night anyways but just curious i'm guessing wuth my luck its the gear too

 

I had the same exact thing happen to me. It opened fine just made a grinding noise when I closed them. I ignored it for about 6 months then replaced the gear and it still did the same thing. I noticed the top half of headlight motor was cracked so I ended up just replacing the whole motor.

 

but its both of mine guess i might replace them i just dont drive it much at night

 

Bringing this back up. I think I need a new drivers side motor. It doesnt go up, but the light turns on, and the wiring looks good. It also doesnt make any noise out of the ordinary.

Is the cardone motor still the best option out there? Autozone has them for 121 bucks and rock auto has them for 60 plus 5 dollars shipping, so i think ill wait for the shipping and save myself the 50 bucks unless anyone has a better option....

And also, is the brass gear still the best option?

 

Metal gears are a waste of money with the new Cardones that have a removable cover. Just change the $5 plastic gears whenever needed and save a hundred $$$.

 

thanks, what about the wiring you were talking about? Should I replace it before installing a new cardone motor?

And do you recommend the t-bar?

 

The new motors don't need the T-Bar. That's only for the original motors that weren't built for removing the shell/cover.

The wiring problem seems to be resolved. All the members we've talked with here who have purchased motors recently report good wiring and proper seals in the connectors.

 

You sure about that? Because I bought the cardone unit and it's gear lasted a week. Returned it for another and it stripped the next day. This was after replacing the gear in my original motor with 3 aftermarket plastic ones. I gave up, bought the bronze gear and it's been good ever since.
Oh btw, yes the easy open gear cover is nice with 3 screws, but it seals about as well as a log cabin window. I could literally stick a flat head screwdriver in the gaps on mine. I ended up sealing it with ultra black so it's still easy to service. Watch the gaps on these things and seal it with something or you'll rust em solid in no time.

 

Yea - I think this proves my point. 10 plastic gears are still a whole lot less expensive than one metal gear, but.... what you are describing is not normal and is not the typical gear failure. The plastic gears didn't start disintegrating as these cars rolled off the assembly line - you have something binding up in your mechanism putting extra stress on the assembly. In your particular case, the metal gear isn't solving anything - its just masking your problem temporarily.

The normal failure modes are age/wear/tear and the motor coming loose from the body. As seen in the first post of this thread and in the warnings that many metal gear providers give, the metal gears are not a silver bullet for the motor/housing problem and a replacement nylon gear is an easy/inexpensive way to solve the wear and tear problem.


If the things are properly greased, then there's no worry and no rust. As long as the grease can't get out, then there's no issue. On my motors, there were no gaps.

 

I just replaced the drivers side headlight motor with a new cardone one and didnt replace the gear. Ill see how long it lasts. Its a PITA removing that last bolt on the motor lol

 

If 10 plastic gears cost $5 each then thats $50 which is more than what I paid for my bronze gear, so no. It's $87 dollars for the fix for both headlight gears. Cmon man. How cheap do you want it to be? We're talking less than $90 and people are bitchin. Plastic will not perform better than bronze when used as a gear. Period!
I get what you're saying, I really do. But I can assure you there's no binding in my drivers side. (Still have the factory motor on my pass side). I've double checked all hinges, bushings for play and binding. Thing is, you're assuming the cardone plastic gear is made of the same plastic and same grade that the factory gear came from. Your avg person can't tell the diff between nylon 66, 6 or 12. How do we know the cardone gear is below, the same or above the grade of the original. I dont myself, just throwing out possibilities. Besides, binding wouldnt cause this because of the way the motor works. It slams into the stop position and the dc motor increases its (resistance or something, I forget), then this sudden increase is detected and the motor is shut off. That slam shut and slam open design is brutal, but is the original design. It's asking alot of a plastic gear and frankly, cardone doesn't have a good reputation of building quality plastic parts, imho.
One more thing, gas to and from the parts store, tax, or shipping all add up to well beyond what I paid for one metal gear and you have to take that into consideration. Plus the time involved. The metal gear has proven its use over the years. Also, I bought the bronze gear, just like the original fix. But the pic in this post appears to be the anodized aluminum version. Yes, type 3 ano is tuff stuff, but what grade is the aluminum? Bronze has been used in the gear industry for over 100 yrs for a reason.

 

Sounds like a conspiracy. We must get to the bottom of this and Make America Great Again.



That reminds me - I still have a spare, undamaged hardened aluminum gear if anyone wants one. It makes a nice paperweight for me now, though. (It's the most expensive paperweight I have!)


They work just fine on my car. 5 years and no issues.


No, it hasn't. Go back to post #1 in this thread. (It even has a picture.) The metal gears are junk.

 

I was referring to the bronze gear not the aluminum one. I thought I made that clear in my last post. Bronze= proven gear material in every industry for over 100 years. Aluminum= depends on heat treatment, but not proven over time. Aluminum can deform even with a type 3 ano. Post 1 is the newer aluminum gear and besides, Showing a failure of 1 part hardly constitutes a pattern of failure. In fact, saying post 1 proves they're junk and plastic is better is not only nonsense, but any metallurgical engineer would argue with you. Plastic is used because its cheap. The aluminum version was made as a cheaper alternative to bronze because, again, people complained that $47 was too high and he was trying to come up with an alternative. I've stripped 5 plastic gears. That's a pattern of failure and worthy to bring into a conversation. Every oem headlight motor failure from fbody's, to vettes etc etc are due to failed plastic gears. If thats not evidence enough I don't know what else to say. By replacing a failure prone part with another part made by the same material, calling it better, is either insanity or attempting to pick up a turd by the clean end. Lol.

OEM uses $5 plastic gears vs $50 bronze gears because they typically last past the warranty and over the course of 1 million cars that's 90 million saved (2 per car) to go towards corp earnings from 1 single part material change.