Hi, I'm new to the forum. I recently started having a problem with my '89 Formula that has me completely stumped so I am turning to you guys for help.

About a month ago my passenger side headlight stopped working. I could hear the motor spin but the light would fail to open, so I got the repair kit from TDS and installed it. As Lon said, the plastic bushings in the gear housing had turned to crumbs. I greased up the housing and reinstalled the gear and headlight assembly. The headlight then worked fine for two weeks.

Now, the headlight if left untouched for several hours will not open unless I manually turn the motor **** a half or quarter turn. Then when I go and flick the switch the headlight works fine. This problem resumes if I don't operate the headlight for several hours. I tried some WD-40 on the actuator shaft and linkage points-that didn't help.

I don't know what this could be. I read in a post someone said that maybe the crank arm is too far extended so the motor relay doesn't engage and trigger the light up? I don't know how to fix that if it is true as I remember the crank arm only fitting on the motor shaft one way. Could I have overtightened something? I was thinking maybe it is the reversing switch inside the motor housing, but don't know how to check for that or fix it...

Sorry that was so long, thanks for any help!

 

It may sound silly but take the motor off and take it apart again. Take out the gear, turn it, and put it back in and stick everything back together. Sometimes I find that repeating exactly what you did fixes the problem.

Other than that, make sure the front plastic "lip" of the headlight assembly isn't catching on the bumper. If you took the headlight assembly out, which I'm sure you had to do to pull the motor off, it's possible that you didn't get it adjusted forward enough when you put the assembly back in and it's catching just slightly enough to not allow the assembly to come up. I had that problem on my '86 and readjusted the whole assembly and the problem went away.

 

Ask Lon at TDS, he`s the expert and that is where the new parts came from.

 

I called Lon and he said to check the headlight control module. He told me a procedure from the GM service manual that overrides the module...other than that he was stumped. I will test the module and try reassembling the unit to see if that somehow fixes things. I checked and the unit isn't catching on the bumber or hood. I figure I may call hawks third gen and ask tme if they have any ideas?