Anyone know of a modification or design to change the vacuum operated headlights to ones driven by electric motors???

I know this has been done before and not sure from what car the motors came from, but the brackets/actuators have to be hand-made.

 

Check this out its from a forum member here.

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/Our_Products.html

 

 

What they said.

Actuators are from 3rd gen Firebird I believe.

 

I don't like how that's done at all...I'm looking for a 12V linear actuator, that would make it really simple.....most likely

 

There are plenty of acutators available. On the surface it looks like it should be fairly simple to find an actuator to take the place of the vacuum actuator. I would like to do this mod myself but I have about 1,000 other projects to complete before I get to the headlights. If anyone has done anything different than the mcspeed conversion I'd like to hear about it.

Rick B.

 

i like that idea just replace the vacuum diaphram with an electrical unit that does the same thing.....leave everthing else the same

 

I have thought long and hard about this subject. I finally had to ask myself why I would want to replace the vacuum acuators--they work pretty well. The reason I came up with is that I wanted to divorce the entire headlight system from engine vacuum. So, what I did is to use an airhorn compressor ($15) to raise and lower the headlights--all I had to do was to reverse the vacuum hoses on the actuators.

 

interesting concept. but why did you have to reverse the connections on the actuators for this to work?

 

because with a compressor you are working with pressure instead of vacuum. Changing from vacuum to pressure makes them work backwards. So, if you reverse the hoses.........

 

All the tough stuff has already been figured out for you to use 93-97 firebird actuators ... go to http://www.mcspeed.com/ and click on the "killer lights" button.

BTW, I recall above inventor/builder first tried linear actuator motors ... but settled on the firebird units.

 

I too agree that a linear actuator would be very easy. Either dual actuators, directly in place of the vacuum cans that are in place now, or a singe one with linkage(s) connecting it to the lights.
Like others, I have just had too many projects to deal with before I get to this one.


I do think that anyone who can design a full kit, keep it under $250 - $300 will sell a lot of them.

 

has anyone tried using an airhorn compressor? I would like to try it out. Would you connect the hot wire directly to an igntion power source? Does this mean that it would be running at all times the engine is running? would you use a fuse? I'm assuming the manual override below the dash would be by-passed. thanks for you help

 

I have looked at a variety of Linear actuators and find them to be superior in terms of design. However, in order to get enough throw on the actuator the entire unit ends up being too long to fit in place of the vacuum diaphram. The other problem is there is no way to raise or lower the headlight once attached to a linear actuator in the event there is an electric or actuator failure short of disconnecting the linear actuator from the headlight assembly, lifting the light, then bracing it up.

I use a 2" linear actuator on my wiper door. It is a killer conversion. However, I have no way to lift the wiper door if there is a relay, switch, or actuator failure. I have plans to use a Firebird motor for the wiper door too, but no reason to put them into action until or unless the linear actuator fails. I am running a www.uslinear.com 75 lbs thrust (overkill) 2" actuator for the wiper door good for 80,000 cycles. So, I don't think it will be wearing out anytime soon!

The OEM 97 style Firebird actuators (and late C5 actuators) are lightweight plastic housings that have safety ***** for manual lift in the event of a mechanical failure. This is a must when you are talking about headlights.

It would be awesome to put an assembly together for $300, but virtually impossible as even simple linear actuators are about $150-$250 each.

GMparts direct recently stepped up and put together a parts package that includes all the electric parts to convert in one simple part number. Salvage yard parts are also available. Corvette Fever did an article on the conversion using salvage parts and ended up around $300 for the total conversion.

 

I've done work on a C5 with a headlight problem and having that safety **** was very helpful. If I also decide to divorce the headlights from the engine, I'll go to a setup with a backup system like the C5 has.

 

Chris, now that I have the camaro headlights finalized in the old ecklers trays, I have installed the linear actuator into the WSW vacume slot...working fine, still dont have a relay controller setup yet....going to use burglar alarm switches for position indicators...controlling 2 DPDT relays...I think that should be sufficient...hope so anyway...guess I"ll find out...

GENE