waupachino

Did a quick search and couldn't find this issue. Headlight goes up and down fine, but motor continues to spin after headlight down, like the down stop for the motor is broken or missing. Any ideas on the fix?

All the external stops are still there. Does this mean the internal gear is broken? I thought when the plastic gears broke the Headlight would not go either up or down or both.

OleStraightStick

Sounds like a stripped gear.. my passenger headlight does it when it closes.. makes an annoyingly loud grinding sound for a few seconds after it shuts.. I’ve got the aluminum gear kit, just ain’t swapped it out yet

momo20

need to replace your bigger gear in your headlight housing i would not go with the metal gear's as for this reason your worm drive gear in the event your light get's stuck trying to open there is a chance it could strip your worm gear which there is not a replacement that i am aware of atm....you can buy the dorman replacement gears from autozone for less then 10 bucks total ..

GCG

It seems you probably have a broken plastic gear in the headlights.

Get a kit like this one (pay attention because there are 2 different kits: one for "97 to early 2000" and another for "late 2000 to 2004") and follow these step-by-step directions. You'll save money and they will last forever

You might need these as well (the rubber bump stops).

There is a TSB, that calls for shimming the driver's side motor. The parts needed for this are included in the above mentioned kit.

knewblewkorvette

I've purchased from Rodney twice (two different C5s) and he has great customer service and fast shipping.

waupachino

Thank you all for the advice. This forum has always been a wealth of knowledge. I read where spun the motor 180 degrees to operate on the other half of the gear. I may try this to buy me sometime while waiting for new gears and the time to replace.

Velocity_Vette

There is no internal "stop" for the headlight. The internal mechanism is a constant worm gear and the headlight gear itself, with the power that is applied being the factor that controls how it opens and closes. Those bumpers on the pivot arm are literally the only two things that stop the headlight from extreme open and close points.

Continuing to rotate when closed likely means the gear is missing teeth. As power is continuously applied to the worm gear when it gets to that point it simply spins more than it should until it contacts teeth on the gear again, which is why it sounds like it's still moving when turned off.

You can flip the gear around, but to be brutally honest if you're going to go through the motions of removing the headlight motor to flip the gear you might as well just go ahead and replace it. It's $50~ which is not a lot of money.

My most recent headlight gear replacement I made a thread on it;

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ick-guide.html

waupachino

So I tried the quick fix of disconnecting the lift arm and spinning the motor 180 to work on the good side of the gear. That didn't work so the gear must be completely shot. My concern is that the Motor is a little loose also, which I read at this point could be a big contributing factor as to why the gears got stripped and without making the motor secure, it could strip the new gears even if they were metal. Has anyone dealt with the motor being loose?

Velocity_Vette

The mechanism is all internal sans the pivot arm. If the motor is slightly loose on the housing or the pivot arm that is not going to have an overall detrimental factor on the motor unless it's the original plastic gear and it's already damaged. At worst it'll just mean that there will be more wear on the limit plugs or the headlight won't fully open/close.

The motor itself is held onto the housing with three bolts. Two go through the motor directly into the headlight gear metal mount and the third one, the furthest back, is a pass-through bolt with a nut. The two that hold the bracket directly tend to hold the most brunt of the force from what I've experienced.

The nut for the pass through bolt and the pivot arm nut is 10mm. The hold bolts are also 10mm.

MBVette

Not sure what you did. But you have to open up the motor and replace the gear. Doing anything external will not change that the gears teeth are stripped.

the flip 180* trick still opens up the motor and flips the gear 180* FYI

waupachino

So I ordered a brass gear kit. Hopefully all will go smoothly. It seems like a fairly simple process and I can get my hands in there to remove the bolts.

I did notice that the new GM AC Delco replacement motors come with a plastic cover that is fastened on with screws instead of just glued on. It was temping to just buy new, but at $194.79 and still having plastic gears, I went with just the gear at a 4th of the price.

GCG

From Post 28 in the link I provided above:

waupachino

Another thing - be sure and check how securely the bent retaining tabs hold the motor to the gear case. If it's too loose, it could create slop in the gear-to-worm engagement, causing premature gear failure due to wear. The tabs can be bent inward a bit by holding the motor on a vise and tapping the tabs in a bit with a hammer and screwdriver or similar tool.

Today 09:51 AM

Correct, I recall reading the above. I removed the Motor this evening and disassembled it, pretty simple process, I didn't even have to remove the Headlight cover. Got all the old grease cleaned out and the bonding surfaces scraped clean. I made sure to do the above and tapped the tabs a bit with a punch and hammer. The Motor to gear case is no longer loose at all. Now I'm just waiting for the parts to arrive. Should be as simple as reassembling and waiting to dry to install.

GCG

waupachino

The new gear came yesterday and went together without issue. Took less then 15min to install and is back to working perfectly. It went so easily that I ordered another one and will be doing the passenger side as preventive maintenance at my leisure since the process is fresh in my head. Thank you all for your input.

waupachino

So I did the passenger side as preventive maintenance. I realized the motors for left and right are the exact same body/motor and the only difference is the side the shaft for the lift arm exits. So technically you could set up the motor for either left or right once it's apart.

grasshopper645

Out of curiosity, is the brass or aluminium gears the better option?

I replaced both mine out with brass gears after this exact problem happened on the drivers side a couple of years ago.

I've heard some people say that the motor could wear out quicker on the brass gears, and that the aluminum ones are better since they are lighter? Curious to know if theres any truth to this.

UM Rebel

Yep probably stripped gears. I put the brass gears in mine a couple of years ago. No issues. There are no stop switches on headlight doors. HCM is a timer and maybe senses increased current draw when doors hit up/down stop.
Motor does stop after a second or so, right?

waupachino

I went with the brass. I can't see the Motor wearing out much faster because it's spinning a little extra weight. I made sure both Motors were tight on the body because I read if they're loose it can cause them to eat gears no matter Brass/Aluminum/Plastic.