TheSnake16

Good morning everyone,

Weird one here, my drivers side headlight motor started acting up the other day. For a quick bit of history on these, I replaced the bushings on both sides about 6 years ago. The motors have been working flawless since then. Now fast forwarding to today, It quit working one day so I pulled the assembly off and looked insdie, all looks great, bushings appear in great shape. I reassembled tested by hand all appears to be working, the worm gear is grabbing the sprocket and spinning it, I powered it up and sure enough working great. Then about 4 days later it quit again. I did the same took it apart and looked at it closer, still not seeing any issue. Put it back on the car all is well... but guess what a few days later it quit again. The motor is spinning fine no electrical issue there. I am wondering should I go ahead and replace the bushings again? Invest in a brass or aluminum gear? Any thoughts or suggestions. I hate just throwing money around so I wanted to ask our community first.
Thanks as always!

Scott

TheSnake16

Ok I finally had a chance to look at this deeper turns out that the metal housing that holds the shaft inside the motor has smoothed out thus allowing the shaft to slip and not spin. The teeth are good on the shaft all the grooves are gone on the metal housing side. Anyone have a crap motor they want to sell that has a good metal housing and shaft assembly? My plastic gear is fine, bushing are great just what they sit on is crap. Thanks!

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

I'm not quite following whats going on here. Could you post a pic of the issue?

TheSnake16

I will ge a pic up tomorrow, the problem is the shaft that attaches tothe arm that moves the headlight up and down, it is attached to a metal housing that holds the plastic gear and the 3 bushings(pellets) the metal housing is stripped letting the shaft spin thus the plastic gear is not spinnng when the worm gear is activated.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

AH, ok, I think I may have a idea now.

TheSnake16

Here is a picture I found, I didn't have a chance to take one myself. In the pic(sorry its blurry) you can see the plastic gear on the left sitting on the shaft, the part that is stripped is what the shaft is going into and what the gear sits on. That is all I need but would take a shaft and housing together.
Thanks! I want to avoid buying a used motor if possible.

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

I had this same problem on a customers car. Roughly 6 years prior I had done the delrin bushing replacement and just as you experienced they were still fine. It drove me crazy trying to find the problem. In my case everyhting functioned fine until I assembled the cover back onto the housing. Then I left the cover off and put an adjustable wrench on the flats of the shaft that the actuator arm attaches to. Once I had that leverage I could see that the cast 3-lobe hub was spinning on the shaft.

In my case I swapped a used shaft and hub from another motor. However if this is not an option there is another fix. Renove the cast 3-lobe hub from the shaft. Grind a flat on the shaft where it attaches to the hub. Now drill thru one of the fat portions of the 3-lobe hub and tap the hole for a set-screw. Install the 3-lobe hub onto the shaft with the new threaded hole aligning with the flat that you previously ground on the shaft. Now install the set screw and tighten. If you want you can mix up a small amount of epoxy and put that on the shaft and hole of the hub before installing the set screw for an even more positive attachment.

Anyone that is familiar with these 2-wire motors knows that the OEM hard gel bushings is the weak-link. Next to fail appears to be this attachment of the cast 3-lobe hub to the shaft. I wonder how long I'll need to wait to find the next failure mode on these motors? If it is the large nylon gear, I have both aftermarket nylon gears and CNC machined gears to solve that failure.

I just wanted to share my experience and a fix. Good luck with your repair.

Lon Salgren

TheSnake16

This wonderful info! Thank you, I thought about trying something like a set screw or something along those lines. I think I follow you on what you did. I will see if I can get away from the honey to do list this weekend and get out and try it. Thank you again!

Scott