Hi Guys,

I just got off the phone with Rodney Dickman, the gentlemen that many of us have bought our brass headlight gears from, and explained to him that after installing my new Brass gears and using the supplied epoxy, that the covers worked themselves loose from the motor case after a few months.
Has anyone else run into this problem?

After speaking with him, he's concerned and wondering how many of us that have bought these gears and installed them are having this problem, he told me that he has sold numerous sets of these gears over the past few years and that not very many people have run into this problem, that he is aware of. And if we have, he will look into the matter and find a better way for the covers to be mounted back to the case. He spoke about different urethane epoxies or possibly even a metal plate that he could design if needed that would attach to the case itself.

Let me know, as I will be talking to him again within the next couple of weeks to give him some feedback.

Thanks

John

 

Yep, just had same problem. Installed the gears in January and the passenger side cover popped off last week My "fix" was to clean off to failed epoxy and use a adhesive that claimed to be good for all type of plastics - PLUS, I drilled and tapped 3 small screws with washers around the perimeter of the gear housing (in the recessed molding areas). That cover ain't going anywhere now I'll do the other side the same when ever it decides to pop

 

I had the same problem als, except I used the same nylon gears when i did the replacement. After the housing came apart a couple of times, I bought a refurbished motor. BIG MISTAKE!! The gear in this motor stripped out in 5 months. Fortunately they are warrentied for a year. I then broke down and bought a new motor for $179 and all has been fine since.

 

Thanks for the input guys, I'm sending this to the top again to see if we can get more posts.
Thanks
John

 

Maacoman!

How about posting a full size image of your avatar!

Thanks in advance!!!

LOL
Turbo5

 

Or at least give us a link!!!

 

Dayum!!

 

Yep, had the same problem. Didn't buy mine from Rodney, though.
JFYI, Beans has new motors for ~$130.

 

I've had the same issue. I replaced mine in October with the gear from Rodney. Sometime in January the side of the housing popped off. I used a dremel to clean all of the excess epoxy off, and bought some plastic bonding agent (glue) from Lowe's. It's been fine since....

 

I had the same problem a few months ago. I discovered that there is no left or right motor so the problem just lies with the passenger side headlight. On the drivers side, the gearbox cover is mounted against the headlight frame assembly and cannot come off. On the passenger side, the gearbox cover can pop off easily with just a little side pressure from the gear (brass) that is caused by the rotation of the worm gear on the motor. A better epoxy or some kind of bracket to hold the cover on is needed for the passenger side motor. I tried three different epoxies and JB Weld and still poped the cover off.

Cheers!

OS

 

I had the same issue....used exopy on mine twice. I probably would not recommend this fix to others since it does fail over time. I hate to fix things twice. Suspect if the other side fails that I will go with a new motor assembly from Fred Beans. It is a real pain to take apart the headlight assembly to get to the motor....just to have to re-glue the cover. By the way...mine was the drivers side and it has popped off and not held in by the frame and bolts as mentioned is the post above.

 

 

and there IS a left and a right motor. they are NOT the same.

 

g-damn thats a nice avatar!

 

I had the same problem with ONE side.

I tried to fix it several times and ended up getting a new motor. I'll wait until it fails to install the brass gear.

 

I did something similar - using two screws. Not knowing abiout these failures, I simply used the screws to hold the cover tightly in place as the glue dried; and then left them in there.

 

Thanks Guys, I found the pic on Viper Alley. My Buddy has a Viper, we were on the site, I saw the pic and fell in love.

On another note thanks for all the posts, I E-mailed Rodney with this link so he can read it. Like I said he was curious to know if anyone else was having this problem, he hasn't had very many people call him about it.
John

Link to Avatar:
http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/sh.../20987/cat/502

 

I bought the gears from Rodney and the right (passenger) side came off and I lost it.

Anyone have a spare cover? Motor still works fine.

 

Wow, I'm in love! I think I'm a lesbian...

Bob

 

I see I already am registered here so I'll post.

I'll first say I have sold many, many of these gear kits. To C5 owners and more so to 93-02 Firebird owners. The 93-02 Firebird headlight motor is almost identical. I sell them thru Ecklers, Mid America, Classic Industries and others. I sell them on my web site and on ebay now for the last 4-5 years. I can honestly say I have had few complaints of the side cover coming off. The problem with the side covers coming off may be more wide spread than I know. I find it odd that so few have let me know this has happened to them. Especially selling them thru places like Ecklers and Mid America. I would think some would call in and complain and they in turn would contact me and say they are seeing problems. Had more told me of these problems I would have acted earlier. I dismissed these few complaints to things happen, maybe grease on the glue joint etc.

Anyway. I talked with Polymeric Systems from whom I buy this epoxy. The question has been what type of plastic is this? They are guessing it is a polycarbonate and nothing sticks well to polycarbonate. If anyone has any idea what plastic these are made of this might help. They recently sent me some samples of a urethane two part adhesive that comes in these little dual pouch packets. I tried one today. I'll know better tomorrow when I try to break the lid off the motor housing I glued today. I want to give it 24 hours to cure. I am hopeful this will adhere better but I have my doubts. They sent me a chart of their different epoxies and urethanes. They list only one epoxy to use on polycarbonate and it is listed as marginal. They did not send me a sample of that. I will probably call them on Monday and ask them to send a sample. The biggest concern with this epoxy is it has a 3 hour open time. It does not set up for 3 hours. I do not know how long the total cure takes. I find that out on Monday. If need be I'll look at switching to this epoxy. Users will just need to be patient when they install the gear(s).

I have been looking at a few actuators the last few days. I had a good idea but there is a problem with this idea as the lid sits at different heights compared to the housing where the bolts go thru. So I don't think this will be a good method. It involved a special counter bored washer. The other idea I have is to laser cut a flat plate maybe .050" or so thick with little tabs bent down to contact the cover just inside the bolt locations. One would still need to use the epoxy but the steel plate would apply pressure to the lid once the motor is installed taking some of the abuse off the adhesive.

If I go the route of this plate it will take some time to make a prototype and send it out to be copied and have them laser cut. They will also need to be plated for rust resistance. Looking back I wish more would have contacted me. I would have looked into this sooner. These gears are well needed. A solution needs to be found to make sure the side covers stay on.

Any input/ideas are appreciated.

Thank you
Rodney Dickman
www.rodneydickman.com