My driver side headlight pops up nice and fast, and the passenger side struggles. It takes a longer time to come up, if at all. I did the delrin bushing upgrade about 3 years ago. Think its the gear? anyone try these? Any thing else it could be? Sorry if this is the wrong section.

Same happened to my GTA. The gear is gonna be toast. But take it out as a core and get a rebuilt one from Advance or Oreilly's for $60.

Just looked on oreilly's website. It is almost $90 +$35 core.

Buy this one. Use TRT30 as a 30% off coupon code. Total cost will be around $50.00 when you're returned the core charge. http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/c...eadlight+motor

P.S. Love the rabbits

The rabbits are my daughter's for 4H.

I got bored and decided to tear down the motor.

Now, I am no expert, but I think I have a bad gear.


Still not quite sure, I could be wrong.


This broken down limiter might be the root cause.

I am no expert either.. BUT THAT GEAR IS FUCCCKKKEDDD! LOL

Bit the bullet and ordered that kit i linked above.

For the extra $15 it was worth it for me to just get the new motor. But if this works, and you save a few bucks, perfect!

why buy a new one with a new plastic gear? When it will just happen again. Also the rebuilt or new cores that you get from auto zone like a cardone or whatever might not be genuine GM cores/motors. And they are NOT the same quality as the GM ones… the motors never really wear out besides the brushes which can be replaced.

Now I just had this issue with some donor headlights I picked up checked the prices online and in the stores and found a guy on ebay who has a shop in the USA who rebuilds the stock ones (you send him your cores) and he fully rebuilds then, and paints them and you get a new gear. Then you can upgrade the plastic gear to an aluminum gear which will NEVER break or wear out. I paid about $200 for both headlight motors (core charge removed) and got them back within a week. They are beautiful and work very smoothly. I opened them up to make sure i got the aluminum gear and sure enough I did. I shouldn't ever have to worry about these for a long long time. he even warranty's his stuff for 3 years.

heres a link to the ones i got with the aluminum gear, core charge not included.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/87-92-Fiero-Firebird-Headlight-Motor-Rebuild-Service-W-HEAVY-DUTY-GEAR-UPGRADE/151575616647?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D28808%26meid%3Dba2da11cf8924bc1b356a6e5073d9cb4%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D161535871109
Not the cheapest option but they are def worth the price if you ever got a headlight stuck or one that lags. plus never having to repair them is a plus lol.

i have also the same issue thanks for the information....

The metal gear and bushings came in yesterday. I will write a mini review on it when I go to install it, probably (hopefully) tommorrow.

"Well THERES your problem...."

Now that it is all fixed..the passenger side comes up slightly faster than the driver side.

Did you get all the shims back in the right spot? Could be one of the gears are binding a little if not. When I got mine put back together one didn't work right at first because one of the screws on the case wasn't tight enough. You can also adjust the stub shaft to add or remove pressure off the ball bearing at the end of the gear. That might change the rate it opens at. IDK, you may know more than me about this, just a couple things that came to mind.

Nah, its all good, they are so close together, I am not going to worry about it.

Yeah, prob'ly the shims or something, but I hear you. I might not want to tear them down again either. LOL

Mine have never popped up at the same speed since I bought the car. On the downside, I noticed mine need to be fixed also, even though the lights have rarely been used - only are used occasionally to keep the parts from seizing from non use. I mostly run the car in the garage with the hood closed. I wonder if the plastic cracked also on the gear or if the engine heat from running my car caused the failure.

I doubt it's the heat, more likely just worn out parts from age. In your case--if you need a rebuild--it could be the bushings inside the gear itself are worn out more on one side than the other, and the motor is slipping. When I did my rebuild they had turned to powder on both sides, it got so bad the motors just spun and never lifted the doors. I did it myself in a couple hours, rebuild kit from Top Down Solutions for about $25 incl. shipping. It's a great kit, easy to follow instructions. Comes with new bushings, new gaskets, new screws and plenty of grease. "Lon" (a supreme member on here) hooked me up, I think it's his company that makes the kit. He gave me some great tips about adjusting the stub shaft and so on too as I was going through the process. Adjusting the stub shaft slightly MIGHT make a little difference, but I'd do the rebuild first. Trust me, it's super easy!