red-in-la

The bronze gear had the rubber insulator. Certainly makes a racket compared to the passenger side. Wondering if I could get more grease in there. Problem is, the housing is all nice and sealed now. Maybe drill a small hole and insert some kind of syringe (?) with grease?

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-p...e-47-99-a.html

Used that kit.

ryrob

I used the solid gears from Brent Franker, no rubber insert...they are actually hardened aluminum now (price of brass went up). Both headlights have the new gears installed.

red-in-la

Are they noisey?

ryrob

No, not at all. I made sure I greased them up pretty good before sealing up the housing. Everything worked fine.

ryrob

So, the same thing happened last night - I flipped the headlight switch and nothing happened. Flipped it a few times and the Driver's Side came up (keep in mind that it used to be the other way around before the new HLCM). Finally after a few more flips both lights popped up.

What's going on here guys??

red-in-la

Would I be correct in assuming you have gone back and rechecked all the plugs and connection... As in taking them apart and reseating them?
My car has a couple of wires where the PO tried to open a plug by pulling on the wires with a set of pliers.
Anyway, when the lights haven't come up have you tried wiggling connectors / wires instead of repeatedly flipping the light switch? Just an idea...

lionelhutz

My feeling on the solid gears is that they jamb pretty hard when they hit the stop since there is no rubber to act as a buffer. I have no idea what to recommend to try and fix it.

My bumpers do look about like yours but they've been on the car much longer. A certain amount of indentation would be normal.

I guess you could look at the old module and see if there is a low ohm resistor used to sense the current. It might be possible to increase the resistance slightly and lower the force.

ryrob

Good point about the solid gears Peter, but the thing that makes me doubt them as the culprit is the fact that my problem has been almost completely isolated to one headlight (first the DS, now the PS) and not both. Both headlights have the solid gear.

What are the chances that my headlight switch is bad?

lionelhutz

I'm quite positive that it's the same control signal for both lights.

ryrob

Good idea, I'm going to check the connections tomorrow. The reason I haven't in the past is because I am (or was) 95% sure that the reason the headlights were getting stuck in the down position is because the manual ***** were being overtightened by the headlight motor/hlcm. So it was more a of a mechanical issue than a problem with the wiring. I'm starting to consider every possibility now though because we're running out of options.

The lights are definitely working better with the new HLCM installed, but the random misfires still have me wondering what the real deal is...

Anybody?

Choreo

How long after you installed the new gears did this problem become noticeable?

runner140*

Simple $2.00 fix.....and I had to find some hard plastic hose. Who knew.

ryrob

That's the thing - the problem arose BEFORE the new gear in the DS headlight was installed. The driver's side would get stuck just about every time and I'd have to get out of the car and loosen the manual ****. This was with the factory gear still in place. It eventually stripped and I replaced it with the solid gear to match the passenger side. So the problem has occurred with both types of gears in place. You think they are jamming though?


This has already been tried. Eckler's reproduction stops are brittle and it actually split in half after a week of taking the force of the headlight coming down. What type of hard plastic hosing did you use? I haven't found anything (hosing or otherwise) that has held up.

Choreo

I was just thinking that the motor itself may be putting out too much power (with any gears) or it is not responding to the "stop" signal quickly enough. I am not sure if the headlight motors work like the window motors? But the window motors shift the motor armature to shut off. If they are similar in design maybe it is just taking too much power to get the armature to shift?

lionelhutz

The teeth on the plastic gears will get damaged enough to do this. I replaced mine when it was at that stage and a group of about 3 or 4 teeth were pretty badly damaged. They will start to "fold over" and bind in the worm drive gear.


The armatures don't shift. The power goes through the control module and it turns the motors on and off.

Got a link to some pics of these window motors with these shifting armatures? I'd like to see how it could shift back if the shifting is what turns the power off. And also how it's held from bouncing back on a bump in the road and moving the window by itself. I always understood the motors were controlled by relays in the door control modules that sometimes fail and need to be replaced but I've never really looked at the window motors very closely.

Peter

ryrob

The problem with the DS headlight not popping up didn't go away after I installed the new gear and got rid of the plastic one, however.

Chicago1

Did you send them back or tell them? What I did was take a piece of fuel hose and cut it. Then I took a small hose clamp the ones you put say on a fuel line and I cut it. I put that into the fuel hose and inserted that as a stop tab. It hits the rubber part but it's not to soft because the metal piece of the hose clamp is the middle. It doesn't look pretty but it does the job and has been going strong for over a year.

lionelhutz

Well, the plastic gear wearing is a very common cause of the headlight sticking.

Did you possibly damage the motor in some way or assemble it improperly? Is the motor loose on the housing? Was the worm gear damaged?

Try taking the arm off the motor, rotating the motor 1/2 turn and putting the arm back on.

The rotate trick made my motor work for the rest of the summer. My motors have screws so I just bought a $10 Dorman plastic gear and stuck it in. For some reason, it's a little noisier now but the headlight goes up and down fine.

Peter

ryrob

The gear replacement was not meant to fix the headlight getting stuck. I replaced the gear because the plastic one had stripped and was making that awful sound that we all know very well.

That's a pretty good idea putting the metal piece inside the rubber fuel hose! I may have to try that down the road. Thanks.


The rotate trick sounds interesting, I understand how it could work. But if the gears are over-rotating or the currrent/force on the motors is too strong, wouldn't the motor just overtighten on the very next cycle of headlights closing?

ryrob

Alright fellas, I'm fed up. Turned my lights on to leave work and everything worked fine. Got to the gym and after working out I went to flip the headlights up - nothing (on either side). Had to get out and turn both manual ***** a half turn. And of course, everything opened just fine. I'm at the point of wanting to sell this car due to this headlight issue (no I don't want the fixed headlight option). Here are my only 2 ideas left:

1. Try different gears, other than the hardened aluminum

2. Replace both headlight actuator motors. This would cost me about $460 but if it's a sure fix I'll gladly pay it at this point.

Heavily leaning toward #2, what are anyone's thoughts?