Am I in for a tough job putting these back together?
 

Well today I though I would help little brother out in fixing his headlight door motor problem on his 91 Firebird. It seemed his motor would spin , but nothing would happen so I thought I would take it out (drivers side) and check out the gearbox. Upon taking the gearbox apart I come across what looked like crumbled plastic. We out of curiosity then disassembled the passengers side to see what this plastic once was. Now that I realize we need 3 rubber bushing pins, OPPS!! , I never marked the position of the shaft arm in relation to the gears or three recesses for the bushings. Is this now going to be tough to reassemble?? Also I'm a machinist by trade and I was wondering, can I make these bushings out of teflon or nylon or should I use something else??

I think you're talking about three ball bearings that came inside the motors.. They break rather often. Metal replacements will do just fine, they're somewhere close to 10mm.



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89 iroc-z 305 tbi
k&n filtercharger, open element air filter. nuffin' else

Enkil, I really think these are a soft material for a design reason . they are definatelynot sphere shaped. Did I do anything wrong by not marking positions as I tore in to'em.

I've replaced the bearings with steel balls and so have many other people without problem.. In fact the softness of the bearings is what causes them to break many times. But just so we can be clear on what we're talking about...

Inside the motor there's a big circular gear with a lotta teeth on it (well, duh.. heh) and that's on a metal axle.

Pull that gear out, and inside the gear is something that's kinda like a rounded triangle with the sides pushed in. If I could draw with ascii I would.. but I think you know the part I'm speaking of.

Sitting between the outer ring of the gear and the recesses in the triangular thing are bearings.. Well, actually I can't say that for a fact as when I took mine out they were both completely mashed into dust. But in any event, in the three recesses I put steel 10mm balls and haven't had a problem with it yet.

Oh, and the position shouldn't matter, unless half the gear is stripped.. In which case, turn it to the other half. hehe

Oh, and the position shouldn't matter, unless half the gear is stripped.. In which case, turn it to the other half. hehe