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I recently purchased a C3 and right away started having vacuum issues with the headlights operating properly. One would get stuck in the up position at times. After swapping to a better carburetor the passenger headlight would stay up unless I revved up the engine and then would cycle up and down depending on vacuum pressure and RPM.
After reading numerous posts on all the vacuum issues I thought enough of this and decided to get the electric motor conversion kits. I came across a set on ebay that was discounted for Labor Day at $419.00 and free shipping.
After receiving the item I was impressed by the quality of the product! Very well made and designed. The instructions were pretty well written except for the following areas I encountered; (pictures below)
- You should remove all three grills as this job is a little involved and allows for more areas to reach through.
- Removing the old actuators was a breeze. 1/2" socket.
- Cutting the metal was easily done. I scribed a line as instructed by temp mounting the electric motors in place and using a sharp awl.
- I used a Dremel with a small abrasive disc as a disc will cut much straighter and cleaner than a Sawzall.
- I then was able to barely fit a 4 1/2" grinder in the area with a 120 grit disc and sand perfectly straight. The metal is very soft and grinds down quickly so a few short bursts on each side was enough to even out and make the sides parallel.
- Then sprayed a little Rustoleum Automotive black gloss to prevent any future rust issues.
- As **** as I am the next day I went to a hardware to replace the backing nuts, washers, and lock washers with Stainless Steel as I hate corrosion.
- Bolting in these electric motors was a B!#%&!!! You need a stubby or short 1/2" wrench to reach the bolt heads as there is not enough space to fit a regular box or open end wrench. I didn't realize this for a couple of hours as I tried all types of ways to angle different wrenches. I finally found an old 1/2" Craftsman wrench and snapped it in half. Fairly easy! Then holding the head of the bolts and tightening the nuts with a socket was a breeze.
- Then after mounting the base plates I had to replace the cotter keys. I went back to the hardware store to get Stainless steel ones again not wanting rust issues in the future.
- The small heim joints and connecting rod were bottomed out to the smallest length as possible. Not realizing that once mounted and the cotter key is in place the ears on the headlight bucket protrude out too far to get the 7/16" wrench onto the locking nut. I had to remove the cotter keys again to lengthen the heim rods a bit then get new cotter keys to re-attach!
- Once all that was complete you can run through the action by hand by turning the ***** counter clockwise to get everything adjusted properly. I did two complete dry runs prior to connecting the power.
- This is important to complete prior to connecting any power as the motors are STRONG and as the directions state will SMASH YOUR HAND! The part the directions don't tell you is that if you turn the adjusting ***** a little once the power is connected it will activate the headlights to the full open position instantaneously!!!!
- The 12v power was easily available as well as making a ground below the headlights. The system is on a nice wire bridle with water resistant cannon plugs, an inline fuse and relay. The instructions have you connect the control wire to a yellow wire that is energized when pressing the Hi/Low beam floor switch?? The instructions don't tell you where to find this wire and assuming it would require pulling the control wire through the firewall I decided to use a different method.
- I decided to just use the hot wire that operates the front left marker/parking light which is right there. I figured this would be good as if I wanted to wash bugs off the headlights I could pull out the headlight **** just one click and the headlights would pop up but the lights themselves would remain off and cool! Worked like a champ...so I just used one of those blue jumper clamps.
Overall, these electric headlight motors are awesome...well made and well designed! They were a PITA to install...mostly due to not having the shorty wrench to get to the bolt heads. I eventually want to be vacuum free and am looking for ways to accomplish this with the wiper door and HVAC system. If anyone knows about kits for those items...please chime in!
Here's the link to the vendor I purchased these quality products from;
I went a similar route and only thing different I would add is to take the hood off when you do this. Makes life a lot easier. I can't tell from your pictures if you did that or not. There is a guy here, Richard454 who has a very long thread regarding doing this as well. Yours was very well written as well and to the point. Good job.
I have a PDF on how to do the installation as well- if anybody is interested shoot me an email richard454 at comcast dot net
Blackrocket-
The only problem you will run into is connecting the trigger wire to the parking lights- is DON'T use your hazards- or the lights will jump up and down with the flashing lights-
I've put together a better way-
A male female plug-that goes between the headlight and factory harness- no need to go to the dimmer switch through the firewall.
And I have an option parking light wire- which is NOT affected by the hazards.
They open the headlights when you turn them on- but a different sequence when you turn off the headlights. As you turn off the headlights -if you leave the parking lights on- the headlights stay up- to service- clean - be cool-running Halos- whatever- and then turn off the parking lights they go down- and will only come back up if you turn on the headlights. You simply plug the harness into the OEM headlight plug and connect one wire (brown wire) to the parking light w/ a 3M fastener.
The other thing I have done is use a heim to thread with 5/16 course to fine thread so you don't have to take apart the clevis & linkage- saving a bunch of install time- the course thread screws right into it.
Back in '98 a deer wiped out both headlight assys.....all the aluminum destroyed....I put in Eckler's sugar scoops with the tall square bulbs....later on the bumper was backed into and THAT was destroyed, so I decided to pull the headlights forward and reduce the height via later Camaro bulbs, made my own mounts, and reduced the openings by 1/2 going fore/aft.....the only improvement I can think of doing would be to add lids and operating mechanism....but at age 73, I just have ZERO enthusiasm for that....oh well.....see pix at bottom....
09-24-2017, 11:33 PM
Electric Headlight Motor Installation Summary
Back in '98 a deer wiped out both headlight assys.....all the aluminum destroyed....I put in Eckler's sugar scoops with the tall square bulbs....later on the bumper was backed into and THAT was destroyed, so I decided to pull the headlights forward and reduce the height via later Camaro bulbs, made my own mounts, and reduced the openings by 1/2 going fore/aft.....the only improvement I can think of doing would be to add lids and operating mechanism....but at age 73, I just have ZERO enthusiasm for that....oh well.....see pix at bottom....