I have a 90 Bird, and I have an 83 Trans Am. The 83 passenger side headlight motor nose cone is busted where the shaft comes out to the actuator rod. the motors are unhooked and I'd like to get them running again.

Can I take the motor assembly from my 90 Bird(parts car) and put it into the 83 assembly.

I thought they were all the same and when I looked at it, it appears the the basic design is the same as far as mounting bolts and such, but the 90 doesnt have the part that is like a nose cone which is broke on the 83.

 

the headlamp motors changed how the function (electronics) in 85 or 86 (I don't remember at the moment). They do not interchange as far as I know (as in plug-n-play), physically, they may but, electronic function, they do not at all.

Motor assys. from fieros and sunbirds do interchange, IIRC, with your 83 though.

 

The headlight motors changed from a 3-wire to a two wire in 1987. They are completely incompatible as far as the electrical goes. You can swap the two wire headlight motors for the older three wire system if you swap the entire electrical wiring from the newer car. FYI, there was also a change in 1990. Both the 1987-89 and 1990-92 use a headlight control module to turn on and off the headlight motors, however their circuits and wiring are different. You'd have to swap the entire electrical from a 1987-89 or from a 1990-92. The motors themselves are the same for the entire 1987-92 model years though. I hope this helps.

Lon

 

Damn, sounds like I am screwed.

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm glad I know now, rather than "after" I would have gotten everything apart.