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Old Jul 31, 2011 | 07:13 AM
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Default Headlight motor

Last night, I shut off my headlights and got the dreaded grinding noise of the left motor still spinning for a few seconds and stopped. I opened and closed them a couple more times and got the same thing.

Now if the gear in the motor is stripped like I suspect, from doing a search on this, just curious why the headlights would continue to open and close normally?

Is it always the gear that causes this?

Thanks.
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Old Jul 31, 2011 | 07:18 AM
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The way the gear works it allows a certain amount of travel so the light will usually work for awhile. I got my replacement gears from Rodney Dickman you have to Google him..not sure if he is still selling or not
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Old Jul 31, 2011 | 09:57 PM
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https://secure15.prohosting.com/~a00...fddd4cd8df6d56

Here you go, and good luck
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Old Aug 1, 2011 | 04:12 AM
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Thanks. I had to rebuil a motor on my 87. Now a new challenge!
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Old Aug 1, 2011 | 11:05 AM
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It’s probably not the gear but the black rubber insert. Overtime it just disintegrates.
You can just replace the black rubber insert or it should come with either the plastic or brass gear.
I’ve rebuilt both of mine without needing a gear.
There are a few good write-ups on how to do it. If your motor has the 3 bolts holding on the casing you can rebuild it without removing the motor (time saver). It’s tight working but doable.
Good Luck!
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Old Aug 1, 2011 | 01:24 PM
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I believe mine is the plastic casing, which is glued on, so I guess I am removing the motor. Just need to find the time.
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Old Aug 16, 2011 | 10:48 AM
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Well, I replaced the stripped plastic gear with new brass gear today. All went well, pretty straightforward as mentioned on the forum.

One observation though. When I removed the motor, the metal motor casing was slightly loose where it connects to the plastic gear casing. This caused the plastic gear contact with the metal worm to be sloppy. Now, I am wondering if this causes the gear to wear, or does the vibration from the motor grinding after the lights are turned off cause the parts to seperate? One has to cause the other, I assume. I tapped the four metal "fingers" that secure metal to the plastic and tightened it up.

Just something to look for when fixing the headlight motor.
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