I've been wrestling with two different motors for my driver's side for over a month now. On the motor that came with the car, there were mechanical pieces broken inside of it that jammed the motor from turning. So I bought a used one, it worked fine for a total of two weeks and then it started sticking. So i busted it apart, and lo! verily it was full of rust. I decided that since the actual electric motors were fine and it was just the rest of the crap that was keeping it from operating right, I would swap parts around. Now I have a headlight motor that runs in reverse (i.e. it goes up when it should go down), I suspect I installed the magnet that goes around the actual motor in backwards so the polarity is reversed, making the motor run backwards. Still doesn't change the fact that it only runs one way. So I have a few questions.

1) Where for the love of all that is holy are these gel bushings everyone talks about? My gears are fine for being 25 years old. Are they under the metal cover on the gear with the longer shaft, because it looks like that may be the case, something is under there at least. How do I get it to separate without busting the gear?

2) I am more interested in a permanent fix that doesn't involve these damn motors. It's a cool concept but they seem too frail now and parts aren't exactly falling around our ears. Is there any type of modification anyone's done to delete the motors that isn't a hack job and looks pretty, well, stock? My only interest in this project is making it like it rolled off the showroom floor so I don't really want any shade tree fixes. Nor am I interested in leaving the headlights up all the time.

Any thoughts or general input would be appreciated. Thanks!

***edit:I searched and found a few threads referring to the "sleepy eye" look. I'm not really fond of that. I also gave a little thought to swapping in a camaro front end but if I wanted a camaro, i would've bought one.

 

There are rebuild kits for the motors from top down solutions. The only way you could replace the motors would be to use electric or hydraulic actuating rods. Wouldn't look stock if you open the hood, but other than that it might work. Those kinds of things aren't cheap.
Just rebuild the motors, the TDS kit is an upgrade, they should last fine after that.