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73 Headlight Actuator Issues

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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 03:00 PM
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Default 73 Headlight Actuator Issues

Looking for a little cheap advice. The headlight buckets on my 73 have always either gone up slowly or not at all. They go down fine. I followed the test procedures on the Corvette-101\Vacuum document and found that both the actuators will not hold vacuum on the green side which it says is do to the "grommets" or what I assume is the seals. Everything else on the vacuum system checks out okay. I assume that the actuators in the car are the originals or at least more than 26 years old. My question is would you go through the trouble of removing the actuators and just replacing the seals and boots or would you replace the whole actuators. My car is not stock so I don't care about correct replacement parts so my decision is either a $40 decision or a $140 decision. I'm just trying to be frugel with my yearly car repair/upgrade budget.
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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 03:04 PM
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Hi Mike,
Since the old actuators need to come out of the car for either choice, why not replace the seals.
It's a pretty straight forward procedure!
Regards,
Alan
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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 03:16 PM
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The seal kit works good. Get a kit like this with the metal circles, the circles are held in place with 3 tabs that you bend over. If you try to reuse the old ones they don't hold properly.
http://willcoxcorvette.com/advanced_...eals&x=42&y=11

Have someone hold the hood all the way up and you can get the actuators out from the top center of your Vette.

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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 03:18 PM
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I didn't want to replace the seals and have someone say I should have replaced the whold actuator while I had it out.
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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 03:29 PM
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Originally Posted by MikeDs73
...I didn't want to replace the seals and have someone say I should have replaced the whold actuator while I had it out...
No harm done. Someone would say that anyway. If you replaced the actuators, someone would say "Why didn't you just replace the seals?"

The only person you have to please is yourself.

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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 03:30 PM
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Thanks for the advice Pete. I like the idea of holding the hood up and I like that kit.
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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 03:31 PM
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Thanks Mike. Sage advice.
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Old Sep 20, 2012 | 04:51 PM
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Another way to say that is "Don't fix what ain't broke!" The actuators are fine...they just have worn seals.
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