I have an 88 Trans AM


The driverside headlight will come up sometime and then it falls down when ever i hit a bump or pressure is applyed to the headlight. I brought it to a dealer and they said it needed 2 new motors and that the bushings rebuild will not fix it. I've searched the site but really couldn't find an awnser. The adj ***** spins when I turn on the lights, Do i really need new motors? I plan on going to the boneyard and doing it myself...any tips on what to look for?

Thanks in advance
-Billy

 

Save your money. I just fixed the lights on my 88 Formula this weekend. My motors would turn but wouln't raise the lights. All you need is some JB Weld and a few hours of your time. I found directions and photos the other day that helped alot. I didn't follow them to the tee but they helped. They removed the entire assembly from the car but I did it skipping this step. They can be fixed by just removing the motors. I'm going to look for the site so I could send it to ya. Reply so I know if you still need the help.

Mark
Locust Grove Ga.

 

I was just going to remove the drivers side tonight and get the motors in the boneyard tommarow. Just got home from work so we'll see what happens tonight

 

I manufacture and sell a headlight repair kit to repair your headlights. They will be good as new when you're done. The kit repairs the 1987-92 Firebird headlignt units. One kit repairs two headlights.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

Wild bill are you there?

 

BadBoyBill,

All you need to do is spend $2.00 and about 1hrs and repair both of your headlight motors. Let me know if you need the details.

 

thats awesome guys....first post and I'm saving sum serious loot...Thanks

 

Got replacement bushings off ebay dirt cheap.
You can probably find em elsewhere for an even better price.

 

I recomed the rpair kits that TDS sells. The same thing happened to me, the dealer wanted like $300 or more to fix my lights & I did it myself for like $10.00 & like 2 hours. & it took me that long because I cleaned & painted the motors since they were out.

 

All you need is some JB Weld and a few hours of your time.

At first I tried that (RTV, not JB weld). I wouldn't recommend it. Without the bushings, if the motor is still turning when the light is all the way up/down, the worm gear turns into a drill bit and makes pretyy short work of that wimpy nylon gear.
Bushings are better. I chucked up some random plastic rod stock in the drill press, turned to about .40" (IIRC) to make a set of bushings Works pretty well, but I didn't use the best plastic. As long as it can elastically deform to .30", your good to go. Squish one in the vise until it's .3" and see if it springs back; if it stays oval, try something else.

 

Ok so help me out. I never did see what the bushing looked like. Is that what I had to clean out of the gear. What does the bushing look like. If my JB Weld is taking it's place I guess I can expect to take them apart again one day.

Thanks

 

A picture of the new bushings in my headlight repair kit.

FYI, the nylon gear is not available. Not to worry though, since aftermarket ones that are CNC machined from solid bronze are available for $60.

Lon

 

The 3rd gen has the same headlamp motor as 88 - 96 Corvette's.

From the factory, the inside of the gear is packed with a special hard gel that turns the gear. This gel deteriorates over time and losses the strength to turn the gear. The old gel looked like chewew-up candle wax out of both motors.

There are two main kit's that I use.
The first is a three Delrin bushing kit $5.00 per. motor

The next one is a bronze gear upgrade/w bushing kit
$60.00 per, motor
You can find both at www.madvet.com

 

I made my repair kit out of metal, with some bolts and 3 nuts on each bolt, then I cut and ground down the end of the bolts so it was flush with the nuts and and tighted it all up and droped 3 of these new metal bushings in each motor, its been about 2 months now since I did this. They work great go all the way up and stop and no noise and go all the way down and stop they are pretty quick now.