I rebuilt my pop up headlight motors. After reinstalling them in the car they worked fine for a little while and now they don't seem to get any power. They will drop down if I crank them up manually. The switch will drop them. But not raise them. The motors both act as if they are getting no power.

I did a search for this and I couldn't find and exact solution or a duplicate of the exact problem. Any help on this problem is most appreciated.

 

It could be the headlight motor control box piece. It's about 5" square and a 1/2" thick you'll find it to the left of the power brake booster if your looking towards the back of your car. But before I replaced it what I'd do is get a test light(looks like a screw driver with a groud wire, lights up if it gets power) and pull the connector off the motor turn the headlight switch on then probe the connector to see if it's getting power. Oh yeah theres a limit switch inside the headlight assemble also, basicly it tells the control box if the headlight is up or down and the control box relays power accordingly. If you don't have one pick up a Haynes manual for your car becuase they show some okay diagrams and also show the wiring of the headlight.

 

Thanks alot. I will check into that. Is the box your talking about the one that says "guide" on it or something of that nature?

When I rebuilt the headlight motors I saw no switch of any kind. I do have the haynes manual though. I will check into it. Thanks.

 

I don't know if it says anything but it's right beside the brake booster and it has two fairly good sized connectors going into it, my lights wouldn't flip up when I got my bird and the motors worked fine(jumped them off the battery) but someone took the control box piece out but luckily I found it in the hatch with awhole bunch of other junk. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure theres a limiter switch in the head light assembly.

 

Hi I'm having a similar problem- I rebuilt my passenger side headlight motor and it worked for 2 weeks now doesn't lift when I flick the switch unless I manually start it by turning the **** on top. I think it may be the limiting switch inside the motor- what can be done about that? How would I know if that was bad and where can you get a replacement?

 

Yes, it says "Guide" on the the headlight module.The factory service manual has an excellent troubleshooting flow chart to diagnose the headlight system including the module. It explains when power should be on which pin in various states of the headlight switch itself.

 

The Top Down Solutions site has good pics of them...2 different ones, depending on the year...

87-89 Fiero/Firebird

90-02 Firebird

But yeah, they say "GUIDE" on them.

 

There's a limitation to how much "rebuilding" a regular person can do to one of these headlight motors. For the most part, the bushings and gear are about the only "rebuilding" you can do. If there are electrical problems within the motor such as the direction switching mechanism you really have no choice other than to replace the motor with a rebuilt unit (if you're sure that's the problem). A-1 Cardone has rebuilt motors available for our cars so if you have an auto parts store nearby that carries A-1 Cardone then you can get one from there. (O'Reilly Auto Parts carries them). A-1 most likely has more availability of parts and knowledge about fixing electrical issues with the motors and can therefore do more than a normal DIY guy can do.