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hi I have one of the headlight motors that wont go on unless I push motor and it goes up then it will go down when lights turned off with switch from dash, what can this be? got motor out and it keeps spinning when I plug it back into wiring harness but wont go the opposite way, maybe the relay?? thanks for any info
What you probably need is the large white gear in the pic. Over time the worm gear wears a grove in it. With the motor out and plugged in it will keep running and never reverse. It requires the motor shifting the light either to open or closed stops to shift the armature and open internal contacts..
I have one of the headlight motors that won't go on unless I push motor and it goes up, then it will go down when lights turned off with switch from dash. Got motor out and it keeps spinning when I plug it back into wiring harness
Since the headlight will go up when you bump the headlight door, and will go down okay, that tells me your gears are probably good. And since you didn't say anything about hearing the motor run but the headlight door not moving, that also tells me the gears are probably good. When you remove the motor, it will continue to run, just as you have explained! The headlight door needs to bump into the stops at the end of its travel, either up or down, to set the limit switches, which causes the motor to stop as it should.
Cliff Harris has a good description for fixing the early ('84 - '87) headlight motors. In his post, he shows the worn out gears (which I don't think is your problem) and the limit switches. Try cleaning your limit switches. If they get dirty, the motor will stop at the wrong time! Apply some light weight white grease to the motor bearings. The motor armature needs to shift up and down in the bearings when the headlight door hit the stops to actuate the limit switches. Here's his post: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...placement.html
Last edited by Hot Rod Roy; Aug 12, 2016 at 12:09 AM.
Thanks gears are good, the motor works out of car but as I put back in the motors getting hot when I turn light switch on from dash, don't think it has enough power, replaced contacts with other spare motor I had..
As I put back in the motors getting hot when I turn light switch on from dash, don't think it has enough power, replaced contacts with other spare motor.
??? Did you figure out how to clean the limit switches? I hope you're not confusing the limit switches with the commutator. Are the brushes on the commutator worn out? Your first post implied that the motor had plenty of power to open and close the headlight door, once you could get it to run. Both limit switches and commutator are clean, no lubricant? I hope you didn't take the magnets out of the motor.
thanks again, I did mean that when light opened when turned on I had to physically open it by hand all the way around till open, only on turning off switch from dash does motor go down, the rest all is good just motor is getting hot not sure if its something I cant see,,,i replaced brushes, not sure what the commutator is or where it is exactly
Here is a pic showing the contacts (circled in white) that are used to shut the motor off when it reaches its stops, opened and closed. Also the brushes are circled in red, I'd be interested in knowing how you changed them???
In the pic in post #3 I used the white to indicate the piece that is attached to the armature shaft to open the contacts when it reached one stop or the other..
1986 headlight motor
