When my lights go down the motor makes a grinding noise, I know it must be bad, but now when I just turn the parking lights on the headlights come up they did not do this before. What could be the problem, I wonder if this will correct itself when I replace the motor

 

The gear inside the headlight motor is probably stripped. Its basically a plastic gear... There are several great threads about how to fix them. There is I believe a brass gear for like $50 from one of the vendors...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1767764

hope this helps...



J

 

Very popular issue w/ C5's. I think we have all replaced our headlight gears.

Myself, I just disconnected the bracket and turned the motor manually to the unused side. The motor does not revolve 180 degrees. I also have Rodney Dickman brass replacements for whenever I feel like replacing the plastic ones.

There are SOOOOO many posts on this forum about this issue.

Just go to the "search" menu

 

Your gears are stripped. Get the Brent Franken gear set, replace them both and be done with it. His brass gear set is designed so that it eliminates the rubber shock absorber that also can fail. After the fix, no worries from then on.

 

I purchased the left side headlight motor off of e-bay for 160.00 shipping and handling. Then a bud of mine told me about this brass gear that's out there for about 15.00. Yea thanks bud...Anyway, Replacing the whole motor was simple. It went a lot smoother with 2-people. I had 2- 10 mm sockets and small ratchets and a swivel with 2 extensions that could reach across from on side to the other of the headlight frame. Also, get a 10 mm open and box end wrench. You will need this for the middle bolt.You have to manually crank the headlight to the open position, unscrew the trim piece and remove it. Then the top cover. That allows you to slip you hand inside and guide the socket into place on the 3 mounting bolts. While your bud loosens the bolt from his/her end you back him up with you 10mm. Here are some things to remember before the operation starts:
1) Look at the way the power wires are postitioned thru the Head light. So when you go back you'll know how to run the new wire to plug in you head light.
2) Notice which color wires are on which headlight plug.
3) once the light is in the open position, put a towel around the headlight opening so the ratchet will not scratch your paint.
4) stuff a towel inside the dealight opening to catch the nut and washer that might fall in.
I had to install the damn motor twice because I didn't pay attention to where the wires were positioned around the motor. Never-the-less it took 25 minutes for me and my neighbor to remove, install, remove and re-install... It's really simple...good Luck
Art Mejia

 

The only problem is: That new motor you just bought has those same crappy plastic gears...

Dangit!

 

However, my mechanic disagreed. He called that plastic gear a suicide gear. He said it's job is to give out instead of the motor giving out. That makes sense in theory but I think he's wrong on this one. If the motor decides to over-crank the gear, I think its time to replace the motor anyway, or there's a problem somewhere else.

Anyone else ever heard of the "suicide gear" theory? To the OP, here's my headlight gear replacement instructions that even a kid could follow:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1823603

 

get a good glue. the glue with the franken set lasted me about 5 days and I had to tear it down and do it all over again.

this time i bought some high strength epoxy and put it on.

 

I personally have not heard of the "suicide" gear, but I remembered reading this theory as to WHY the gear wears out (over and over) and why it makes sense to go with the brass replacement as opposed to doing the plastic/nylon OEM.

Here it is:http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/index.htm

Since putting this page up several years ago, I have received, no lie, probably over 1,000 pieces of email thanking me profusely for putting this page up describing how to fix the terrible ratcheting noise one hears one the stock nylon gear strips. The main problem, and why I get so many emails about this, is that the design is poor to begin with. There are no limit switches or anything "fancy" which stops the headlight motor when it goes up or down. There is simply the control module which senses a high amp/current draw and THEN shuts down juice going to the motor. So, each time you turn on/off your lights, the motor, for a split second, tries to continue to raise/lower the headlight even though it physically can't. This puts a lot of stress on the nylon gear and, since the same area of the gear always gets the stress, it often times doesn't take long for these to fail. And, when the nylon gear fails, it costs big $$$ to have it fixed. Out of the 1,000+ emails I've received, the average people have been quoted to have just ONE of these headlight motors replaced is over $300! Often times it is even over $400. Why GM thinks this is such a "valuable" piece is beyond me. I think it is nothing more than an easy money maker for GM and the dealers. GM makes a killing on the part and the dealer makes a killing on installing it. Yep, several people have been quoted $200 or more to install this motor and it takes, at most, 30 minutes with average tools. Very odd why they charge so much for this but, either way, I hope to put a little dent in their enormous profits for this item

 

Hey Kale, what brand did you buy? I'm still experimenting.

 

Rodney Dickman sells a three legged bracket with his gear which reinforces the glue for later year motors. Early year motors use screws already.