waynechallenger

Hey guys, thought you might be interested what I discovered when repairing the headlights on my '88. I had one headlight that began to act up. Reading other posts that describe the problems with the nylon gear, I ordered the $60 bronze gear from one of the Corvette aftermarket suppliers and proceeded to repair the malfunctioning headlight. Once I got the assembly apart I discoved that the gear was not stripped, but the the three small plastic (cylinder shaped) parts that interlock the nylon gear to the metal shaft had turned into dust. Since I already had the bronze gear I installed it, along with the three new plastic pieces that connect the gear to the shaft. As luck would have it, within a week of fixing the one headlight, the other headlight started acting up so I took that one apart and discovered that, just like the other side, the gear was still good, but the three small plastic parts had also crumbled and turned into dust.

Since the three small plastic parts that were supplied with the $60 bronze gear repair kit seemed to look alot like the nylon spacers you can by at your local hardware store I decided to go to the hardware store and see if I could find an acceptable substitute.

I found out find that 1/4" x 1/2" nylon spacers were just about perfect substitutes. They did require slight "Sanding" to make them fit, but no more sanding than the ones supplied as part of the $60 repair kit. In fact, the instructions supplied with the bronze gear suggested that slight sanding may be required.

I was able to repair the second headlight for just a couple dollars.

Moral of the story, before you order the $60 dollar repair kit, you may want to take your existing headlight assembly apart to determine if you need the gear or just the three small plastic cylinders that connect the gear to the metal shaft.

oldalaskaman

if you had done a search, you would've seen your 'fix' several times.