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Headlight problems

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Old Aug 4, 2012 | 11:35 AM
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Default Headlight problems

My drivers side headlight will no longer come up. It turns on just fine and you can see it shining but it is in the lowered position and won't come up. The passenger side light works just fine. The know on the top of the gear assembly just spins when I turn it and does nothing.

How do I get this damn thing to come up so that can look at the assembly and try to fix it?

I need to drive this car this afternoon and I can't drive it past dark with one headlight :/ Any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated....
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Old Aug 4, 2012 | 12:01 PM
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Gear is probably stripped, you will have to pull it up a little before turning manual crank so you can engage some non broken gear teeth
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Old Aug 4, 2012 | 12:03 PM
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what he said ^^^^ also there are pics and a couple how to's in the DIY sticky thread at the top of this section
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Old Aug 4, 2012 | 12:34 PM
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Can you hear or feel if the motor is running. The gear that drives the headlight door is a nylon gear that meshes into a metal worm drive gear. The nylon gear will get worn or stripped of its teeth over time.

If the nylon gear is worn around the perimeter then the drive gear cannot mesh with it and turn it.

kdf
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Old Aug 4, 2012 | 12:51 PM
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Originally Posted by kdf1986
Can you hear or feel if the motor is running. The gear that drives the headlight door is a nylon gear that meshes into a metal worm drive gear. The nylon gear will get worn or stripped of its teeth over time.

If the nylon gear is worn around the perimeter then the drive gear cannot mesh with it and turn it.

kdf
I have actually replace both gears on each of the motors.

When I tired to turn the **** at the top it would just spin and did not turn the shaft. I pulled the **** off thinking that it was broken and saw the top of the shaft that it sits on and got some pliers and turned the shaft. It did not want to turn at first and after a couple of tries it began to turn and I could see the headlight moving.

It seems that it seized up and as soon as I got it to a point that the headlight was a 1/4 inch up then I went and hit the lights and sure enough it came up. So I went ahead and ran them up and down about 20 times. Looks like it is ok, but I am concerned that the motor might seize up again.

Have you heard of this happening before?
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