Headlight door trouble - help!
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,443
Likes: 2
From: El Paso, TX
Headlight door trouble - help!
One of my headlights clicks as it is lowering. After it is fully down, something keeps turning.
I manually raised the door and it works ok but after lowering it to the lowest postion it doesn't come up on a positive stop.
Anyone repaired this themselves? It looks like the motor / drive assembly is replaceable.
Any help is very appreciated.
I manually raised the door and it works ok but after lowering it to the lowest postion it doesn't come up on a positive stop.
Anyone repaired this themselves? It looks like the motor / drive assembly is replaceable.
Any help is very appreciated.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,384
Likes: 87
From: Horncastle Lincolnshire, England
2023 C5 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Your plastic headlight gears have stripped. The noise you're hearing is the gear motor turning but the gears are not making contact. Its a common problem and you need to replace the old ones with brass gears.
You'll find all you need to know in this sticky. Run down to the section on headlight gears.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=984927
You'll find all you need to know in this sticky. Run down to the section on headlight gears.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=984927
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 2,094
Likes: 5
From: The 7th layer of hell - Western Washington
damn, beaten by seconds from across the pond!
look in the general info sticky at the top of this forum, it will tell you everything you need to know about replacing your worn out plastic gear with a more robust brass one...
look in the general info sticky at the top of this forum, it will tell you everything you need to know about replacing your worn out plastic gear with a more robust brass one...
Team Owner
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Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,443
Likes: 2
From: El Paso, TX
I used the brfranken replacement gear and had success. I did remove the entire headlight assembly and the job was easy.
One trick I found was that the electrical connector is easily removed by sliding it off a slotted peg toward the rear of the car. Once removed from the peg, it is easily separated.
It is about a 30 minute job but the epoxy takes 24 hours to cure. Another trick I used was to hold the gear cover tight to the case by wedging a few popsicle sticks between the cover and the headlight frame overnight until the epoxy was dry.
One trick I found was that the electrical connector is easily removed by sliding it off a slotted peg toward the rear of the car. Once removed from the peg, it is easily separated.
It is about a 30 minute job but the epoxy takes 24 hours to cure. Another trick I used was to hold the gear cover tight to the case by wedging a few popsicle sticks between the cover and the headlight frame overnight until the epoxy was dry.
Advanced
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
Definitely use brent franker's gears. Another common problem not address by some of hte ebay "rebuild kits" is that the plastic housing for the gear (that actually turns the gar) is also often broken. If i had gotten one of the ebay gears that would have only fixed half the problem and i would still ahve a non functioning headlight.
