Hello everyone,

For the last few months, I've been hearing the headlight motor still spinning after turning the lights on or off on my '93. It's on the drivers side. I knew it would eventually get worse, and now it has. Now it won't turn all the way over, it will flip like 3/4 of the way, and stick, and kinda bounce around, then go back to the halfway position and stop.

My question is, what exactly is the problem? is it the whole motor that is bad? or is it just that little white gear that I keep seeing on ebay? What would be the best bet to fix it?

I have the sneaking suspiscion that I'll end up having to replace the whole motor. If so, does anyone have suggestions on the cheapest place to get one? College student on an extremely limited budget...

Thanks.

Adam
'93

 

If you can hear the motor spinning, then it's not the motor. Chances are it's the goop that's supposed to be packed in the plastic gears in the assembly. It ends up turning to plastic-like dust.

Good news is it's a cheap fix. You can do it for less than $5 per side !

And the even-better news is... you'll learn a lot about patience and tolerance doing it !

Seriously, it's not that difficult, just time consuming.

Welcome to Corvette Ownership, my friend! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

-Eric

 

I have not cleaned this up enough to make it a true Tech Tip yet but here is the proceedure.

There are 3 plastic bushings that may be worn out... on mine the bushings were fine and the shaft was stripped. I had an odd ball problem so I decided to write this to help others with similar problems out.

HERE YOU GO!


What to check and repair if your headlight bushings are good and your headlight motor works but doesn't flip up.

Tools you will need:

1) 10mm socket
2) Ratchet
3) 3" or so ratchet extension
4) Dental pick set
5) Small E-clip pliers
6) T-27 torx socket
7) Bench vise
8) 7mm socket
9) Punch and hammer
10) Drill and drill bit set
11) Something to use as a pin (I recommend a small finish nail like for paneling)
12) Dremal type machine
13) Grease
14) Channel Lock pliers or similar pliers
15) Possibly new plastic bushings (found at Ecklers or other Corvette parts house)

Getting started:

1) Remove the headlight motor connector
2) Remove the 6 (10 mm) bolts holding the assembly to the hood
3) Remove the small E- clip on the motor shaft connecting it to the headlight linkage.
4) Remove the T-27 upper torx bolt on the headlight motor
5) Loosen the T-27 lower torx bolt
6) Remove the 3 t-27 torx bolts on the side of the motor
7) Remove motor and lay to the side removing the 3 (7mm) bolts holding the motor cover on
8) Using a dental pick set remove the large plastic gear gently by lifting upwards
9) You will find 3 plastic bushings under the gear
10) Inspect the bushings and replace as necessary

If the bushings look ok then you will need to look deeper. There is an aluminum (or pop metal) plate under the bushings that the bushings sit on. In the center of the plate there is a steel shaft that is splined to fit into the plate. This splined shaft my have stripped inside the plate. You can determine this by locking the plate into a vise (becareful not to mar the plate) then use a pair of channel lock pliers to try to turn the shaft (becareful not to mar the shaft). If the shaft has any play at all the shaft is stripped inside the plate and will need to be pinned in place to fix.

Using a vise, secure the aluminum plate and make sure the shaft is exactly where it needs to be (you will see wear marks on the shaft as to where it needs to be located).

Use a drill bit a hair smaller than your pin and drill straight through the aluminum plate and the shaft (keep your drill bit cool with WD-40).

Then remove the shaft and drill the hole the same size as your shaft.

The purpose of the 2 different size holes is so the pin will fit the shaft perfectly but have a pressed fit into the aluminum plate.

Press in the new pin using a brass punch and a small hammer.

Once the pin has been seated correctly and fully you will need to cut the pin and polish the edges where the pin is using a dremal tool.

Failure to clean and polish the edges will result in the bushings binding and premature failure of the bushings.

After the pin has been set and polished you will need to use some sort of grease to keep the bushings in place for reassembly.

Be sure to clean and lightly grease the bushings and gear using lithium grease, axle grease or anti-sieze grease.

Reverse the steps above to reassemble the motor and reinstall the headlight assembly.

When completed you may need to retention the electric motor. You can determine this by matching the speed to the opposite motor.

To adjust the tension you will need to loosen the large nut under the motor assembly and turn the flat head screw in or out and tighten the nut back up.

Finally... you can pat yourself on the back because you just saved $350 + labor on a new headlight motor!!!

 

That looks like a good proceedure. I had the replace the gear on my wifes trans am a few years ago. On those all they use is half the gear to flip up and down so all you have to do is turn the gear around. This lets the motor turn the other half of the gear that was unused. Glad you posted this, I am having the same problem on my Vette.

 

I had the same problem with my 1990. I bought the bushing kit from Ecklers for $4.95 and it fixed the problem. The light works like new now. It only took about an hour to take the light assembly out and replace the bushings. Just make sure you get all the old powder out of the middle of the gear. Good Luck!

 

Do them both at same time. On my 89, I replaced just one side and not to long after I had to do the other. On the 92, I did them both after one started to fail. I have done a few for friends the same way.

 

does the dealership carry the bushings by themselves? I just called one of the dealerships here in town, and asked for a price on them....and he said that GM doesn't offer just the bushings....that they only come with a whole new assembly for $160........ I was hoping to be able to just pick them up locally, rather than pay $8 shipping. I hate paying more for shipping than what it is I'm buying!!

 

I just did this less than a month ago. It took me 90 minutes total for both sides and my headlights work like new now.

Heres the article I used: http://www.corvettefever.com/howto/33098/
It sounded complicated to me, but it turned out to be easy and straightforward.

Now the best part: You can buy the bushings at any Home Depot for next to nothing. It cost me $1.41 to do both lights. The part your looking for is SKU# 595609 and are 27/64" Long 29/64" OD .324" ID Nylon Spacers. They ran .47 cents for two. Just remember that you need three spacers per headlight and they come in packs of two.

Hope this helps! (BTW, I learned all this from forum member onedef92. Glad to be able to pass it on!)

 

I have heard of people buying the from home depot and also people putting in steel ball bearings.

Maybe someone will chime in here.

 

onedef92 has posted the part number for the Home Depot bushings many times. Send him an IM for the number. Or do a search of the archives.

 

LSUgoTiger,
I just did the bushings in my 95 per the instructions from Forum members. One instruction guide was from Corvette Fever and the other from Corvette magazine.
My lights work fine now. Go ahead and get the bushings from Ecklers and don't fool with the dealers, please! You'll be glad to did this fix yourself for a cost of about ten bucks.
I am not a do-it-yourself guy but I did this and it was no problem.
These Forum folks who know much more that I do about this will be glad to offer advice and help. They did for me!

 

picked up 2 sets of bushings from Home Depot today, and hopefully tomorrow or thursday, will have everything fixed. I think I'll leave my car at home for my dad so he can work on it for me while I'm at work.

Thanks for all the instructions, and the tips on home depot parts. I wonder what other replacement parts we could find at home depot?....we could all have "MacGuyver-ed" cars, and would have a lot more money in our pockets.

Adam
Black '93

p.s. on the corvetteforum homepage I saw the link for the Black and chrome c6 wheels for sale....and very quickly photoshopped each onto my car and uploaded into the c4 gallery if anyone wants to take a look.

I like the black ones myself

black c6 rims

chrome c6 rims