Corvette ED

1965 Corvette driver side bucket when close has a good 2 inches of play in it. The bucket won't open unless I push down on it a little and then it will open It will close fine but won't reopen unless you push down on it. When it is close you can rotate it to the open side about two inches until it gets tight?

Any Ideas???

Frankie the Fink

The headlight motor can be removed with ease. Its a hairpin clip, a small bolt and an electrical connector. Once removed you can operate the bucket by hand. A flip with two fingers should fully open or close it; if so you're already ahead because the headlight motor needs overhauled.

Gummed up lubricant but more likely the big main gear galled....easy to fix...

Corvette ED

I had the motor on and off 10 times today. All the stops are adjusted the bucket lines up good. When I install the motor back on the shaft the bucket will move to the open position about an inch before it gets tight. So you think the problem is in the motor?

mike coletta

Yes. The main gear is stripped.

Frankie the Fink

I agree. The fact that you can push on the bucket a bit and it will start to move most likely means that you are forcing the motor onto a sound gear tooth and so it takes off...

Here are the rebuild instructions and the repro parts are quite good now. I've done...hmmm..4 or 5 rebuilds now and they all came out perfectly..

Do not do the 180* flip of the main gear as the instructions state...that's a crap shoot that you'll get engagement past the galled gears. Buy a new main gear...

Do both motors...as having them operate unevenly is a major factor in the gear getting munged up...

Twan Sloot

I agree with everything said above, I also understand everything being said except frankie's last sentence.

"Do both motors...as having them operate unevenly is a major factor in the gear getting munged up..."

Why? The motor stops as soon as it's reached the Y stop end right, how are the two headlights intensifying the wear on eachother, when one runs bad?

Frankie the Fink

Here is my theory - in which case the race does NOT go to the swift!

There are no electrical limit switches on the motors...the so-called limit switches just light that sexy dash LIGHTS warning bulb...

The faster one will come up (or down) and grind away waiting for its slow-poke brother eventually galling its main gear until the driver lets up on the dash switch.

You can add true electrical limiting micro-switches (there is a Youtube video on the process) but that's its own PITA...

The other reason is that the internal lube turns to clay and the motor has to drive hard enough to operate to start chewing away at that pot metal main gear...

Twan Sloot

Not trying to hijack the thread but one small question remains, just to confirm: at the point both headlight buckets are completely down and I would put the dash switch down as well, it's just eating gears? There is nothing inside the motor telling to stop grinding? Not the best GM engineering

Frankie the Fink

If you want to a test then check for 12V at the headlight motor connectors while somebody holds the switch down after the other motor has reached full transition. I've never done it but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts there is voltage there...

I wouldn't say the motors continue to 'grind' but over decades the wearing on the gear starts to worsen.. This is my theory.

Twan Sloot

I am sure there is voltage there because when I press the switch down while the buckets are down too, (so no movement) you can see the courtesy light in the interior slightly dim.

So we can conclude it's just eating gears when holding down with buckets reached stop

Frankie the Fink

Here is the video for adding true limit switches -- that part starts about 1/2 way through:

Twan Sloot

Thanks Frankie, already saw that video some time ago but at the moment I saw the guy drilling in the alu, I'm out, not especially because he is drilling in an original part but I was thinking "how on earth can you get a power drill behind there

Frankie the Fink

I can rebuild a set of motors on a Saturday morning, its really not a monumental deal whatsoever..

Twan Sloot

No sliding the motors off is easy done that a week ago to align my bucket, rebuilding them I don't know haven't done that yet but if you say so

Now I should stop hijacking this thread sorry

Frankie the Fink

Ha!

As the old saying about bricklaying; after the first one, the rest are 'experience'...

Corvette ED

Update,

Took motor apart and found the gear worn bad. Replaced it and everything is good. Thank you to everybody who helped me.