Last spring I put a new gear from topdownsolution in this motor. worked fine up to now.. now most of the time when i hit the headlight switch it wont even come up at all, it's getting power. when i turn the headlight **** it's kind of tight at first then it gets looser after 2 or 3 revolutions, at that point, if i just put a tiny bit of upward pressure with even one finger, and have someone hit the headlight switch, it will go up all the way, without my finger on it, maybe half way or none at all. it seems to me like its spinning its self down too tight, but im not sure at all? 87 transam

 

Have someone push off the headlight while you are at the headlight motors. If they go down, yet you hear them continueing to make noise for roughly 5 seconds, then the headlight control module is bad. It is supposed to sense the spike in current from the headlight bucket hitting the up or down physical stop and shut off the motor. It has a backup timer circuit to shut off the motor after about 5 seconds if it hasn't sensed that spike in current. Your module is bad. There were two modules used. 1987-89 is a different module than the 1990-2002. I sell both.

Lon

 

after further trying to fix this problem, it's not the module.
it seems like it's the plastic gear again, theres alot of play in the arms (even when disconnected from the headlight) and then at one spot near all the way down it gets real tight, after moving it back and forth alot its almost like we jump a tooth in the gear, because now sometimes the headlight will come up all the way then when i hit it to go down itll stop halfway but if you manually turn the **** a tiny bit real quick before the module turns it off itll go down, the same thing can be done to make it go up without cranking it all the way, if it gets stuck while going up, really quick turning the **** abit and itll go all the wa y up. going to take the motor out soon and see for sure if it's the gear, will report back, pretty sure its the gear though, a topdownsolutions one, only a year old.

 

yep, broken gear. what are the chances of another top down solutions gear lasting only a year?

 

If your headlight control module is still bad, then yes. Here's what I mean by bad in your case. The module is spposed to shut off the current to the motor when it senses the spike in current from the headlight bucket hitting the physical up or down stop. I believe yours isn't shtting the motor off right away. Instead the modules timer circuit is shutting it off. There is a timed circuit within the module to shut the motor off after 5 seconds or so. If the motor continues to run the worm drive will chew up the teeth of the OD of your gear. Remember, now that you've replaced the OEM gel busings with the delrin ones from my repair kit, the gear is now the weak link in your system. Rodney Dickman sells CNC machined gears for your motor if you want to go that route.

Lon

 

that does sound right since the gear isnt old at all, but ive looked it over time and time again and it's not making any more noise or giving any indication that it's not shutting off right away. ive had people watch and listening while im hitting the lights on and off. i just flipped the gear around abit and it goes up and comes down now as i dont think it's hitting the broken part, who knows how long that will last

 

Have someone turn the headlights on/off while you are outside wit hthe hood up. Once the headlight buckets have completed their up or down cycle put your finger on the **** on top of the headlight motor that turns and feel for movement. You'll be able to sense if the motor is still energized or not.

Lon

 

have listened to it many times, doesn't do that.
have a link to those other gears?