Headlight problems
 

I brought up this topic before the forum change, and haven't been able to find that thread. So here we go again.

A while ago, my headlight started to act up. It was only flip over half way, typically pointing straight up. After 3 or 4 attempts, it would then be normal.

Somebody said something about a gel last time that I needed to put on the gears. Anyone know what this is? And about how long will this whole thing take to do?

Thanks much! :cheers:

Ok... you need to get into the drive systems of the lights and check the gears and lube them accordingly.

I cannot give you an accurate time est, I have never done this, but I can guess a couple of hours.

EVERYTHING on a C4 takes a couple of hours... at least...

Any special lube?

Some time the gear worn out that you have to replaced it. There was a thread a few years ago by a member spell out the exact dimension of the gear, diameter, width so you can buy it at a local hardware store (brass instead of OEM plastic) for less than a $1 each. This way you don't have to pay ~$10 each at one of those Corvette catalog store (Mid America...).

I had to rebuild the ones on my 90 and what was wrong wasn’t the gear but these post like items that are in there disintegrated. I found them on Ebay looked under headlight rebuild. They had a kit with gaskets or just the posts their self. The only lube I used was white lithium grease. That is what was recommended. The kit also comes with instructions. Since then I have rebuilt about 17 of them with no problems. There are a few things you have to be careful of. The 7mm screws on top break real easy to be ready to drill and tap. Also if the brushes pop out on you you can use some dental floss to hold them back as you put them back in. Here is the kit I use on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33710
Hope that helps.

:seeya

Most headlight problems on 88's and up are worn out bushings, not gears! Yes there are three bushing per light.

The big boys have them for sale at around $ 5 plus shipping, I have heard that you can buy them at Home depot but I can't help on that.

There used to be lots of good tech tips on this subject on the Forum, don't know if they are still around or what

:seeya

Headlight Bushings (pins)
 

The replacement pins for a 89 Vette headlight bushings are .485 o.d by .430 inch long. They can be made on a lathe from a piece of Teflon
or similar material. The Delren pin that comes in them dissolves and turns to powder. You will see when you fix it. I can send photo of pins
if anyone wants to see. That fixed my lazy headlights. Your headlight housing will have to be adjusted to be flush with the hood so don't tighten up all until you have it set correctly. :smash: :smash:

First thing I tackled on my '89 was the "winking" headlights. Bought the fancy brass gears. Boy, did they look pretty!:cool:
After a good two hours on the first side, then only about an hour and a half on the second side (the gear assemlies are NOT mirror pairs :cuss!), I was left with two plastic (nylon?) gears that had more wear and tear from me prying them out than normal service wear.
I DID have a bench full of powder from the old grease/bushing/whatever was in there.
Don't know if it's the $50 gears or the $5 bushings (BE NICE!:nono:), but my lights work great!

"Patience, Daniel-san..."

I have the late C4 headlight upgrade. My bushings were gone, so i cut up some wooden dowel and used that for the bushings. Its been working fine for over a year.

Good idea on the wooden dowels. I thought about filling mine full of silicone. Never have figured out why those headlights were designed that way. GM's way of selling parts I guess.
I have an 88 Prelude with 22000 miles and never had a headlight flippin problem. Maybe Bowling Green needs some Honda engineers.

Make that 220000 miles!

Go to Home Depot and get the nylon spacers. They are inventory number 595609.

You'll need 3 packs of 2 each for a total of 6 spacers to do both headlights. They sell for 2 for 69 cents locally.

Good timing!
 

I just repaired my headlights tonight for the second time. The first time I did it last week I used the Home Depot part at 43 cents pack of two, they did not cut it! I currently have a question on the general discussion about my headlight going thump, thump, thump. Took them apart this afternoon and found the spacers smashed into triangles instead of circles. One broke and turned into a spiral. The spacers have too thin a wall. I had some vacuum hose about 5/32" and pushed it into new spacers THEN I screwed nylon bolts (6/32 I think) into the hose and trimmed everything flush with the spacers. Sounds like a PITA but only took a few minutes. The spacers are now solid not hollow and are working great! Had wife take pictures of what I think is the easiest dissassembly/reassembly of motor and of the damaged original spacers plus my goofy modded spacers. Hope to have them on line in a day or two IF anyone is interested.

If you crank the spinned on top of the light motor will the light move? If no there is a gel in the round area on the side of the motor that has a triangle inside of it. When you pull the motor off and open this area up a bunch of little pieces will fall out. The replacement for this is 3 round hollow "beads" used instead of the gel. You can get these for about 6 bucks from mid america or ecklers. Block off about 3 hours to do the swap. i believe instructions come withthe kit. Again if the spinner spins withthe motor and you cant crank the light up manually then i would suggest trying this fix. it is much cheaper then a new motor or sending the old one out for repair.

This article may help you.

http://www.corvettemagazine.com/2001...ghts/head1.asp

https://www.corvetteforum.com/techti...=259&TopicID=2

Here is another good article on this site under C-4 tech tips. I used this one to fix my headlights.

I haven't read through all the posts so i don't know if someone has suggested this.....But normally what i find is the 3 rollers inside the gear decintergrate, i just buy them in packs of 3, replace and good as new.