suddenly my headlights do not pop up when the switch is turned. After two maybe three attempts up they come. No grinding sounds and i do not believe it is the gears. What else could be the problem.

THANKS

 

probably a bad stalk switch,but check for faults.see if any are stored in the ipc or bcm

 

sound like a motor going bad.

 

A week ago, my left headlight would not come up. After 3 - 4 attempts, it finally came up. No noises, nada. It continued to work normally for the next week. Then, yesterday, when that light went down, the motor kept going and the loud motor spinning on broken teeth started. I immediately removed the motor and pried open the gear housing to find 3 bad teeth. I rotated the gear in the housing via a web site by frank (?) who sells brass gears. The section was something to do with a Free headlight fix. I am waiting for the expoxy to dry for the housing reassembly as I type this.

I only posted this because you said you have no bad nosies, and I didn't either 'til the gear assembly completely failed.

 

the plastic stops may be an issue as well...they get worn and the light sits lower which causes the mechanism to lock or make it hard to pop up...pull them off and flip them over....if not maybe it is time to rebuild

DIY with pics....


http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...589&forum_id=1

 

OK, I did it and it worked. Basically, I pried open the gear housing and rotated my stock nylon gear 90 degrees. Now the 3 bad teeth go nowhere near the worm gear, and everything works fine.

The only thing you need to do is (on 2000 C5s and up) epoxy the gear housing cover back down (because later model motors are not meant to be opened and have no screws holding the cap down, thus prying the gear housing open breaks the factory glue seal). I've heard that some people say that the expoxy doesn't hold, so I watched the drying process carefully. As per the instructions on the expoxy, full cure is at 24 hours. I kept checking the expoxy all the way up to the 20th hour, which was right before I went to bed last night, and I could still press my fingernail into it. However, when I woke up this morning it had become hard. So, if you operate the unit before it is completely cured, I can see why some folks had trouble keep the lid on it.

Here's the procedure. Note that this was specifically written for Firebirds, but the process is pretty much the same. Just be sure to use common sense when removing and installing the motor, as it mounts slightly differently on C5s. Oh, and if you poke around on the page, you can also see a video that shows exactly how to open the gear housing for later C5s like mine.

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headl....htm#FreeGuide

And, Pewter99, thanks for the tip on flipping the stops around. My down position stops were both through to the metal, and flipping them around is giving my stops a new life.