Headlights

[Al Hazz]

when i put my headlights down it makes one hell of a noise like the motor is stuck on for 5 seconds or so. So do i just have to replace the motor or what? and when i turn on my fog lights my headlights pop up not to and they never did before, so i dont know what exactly to do.

[patriot1136]

i have that exact probelm actually and I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm gonna start by replacing the plastic gears with the good aluminum ones. If that doesn't work then I'll look into new headlight motors. PM me and I'll let you know after this weekend.

[vannatte]

Go to this link and purchase brass or aluminum replacement gears kits:

http://www.rodneydickman.com/retail_new.html

Problem solved. My headlights went up on my LT1 T/A until I did this repair.

[Al Hazz]

But why do my head lights pop up when i turn on my fog lights though too?

[bige97]

maybe the switch has a short in it.... thats my guess

[Too Fast]

Go to this link and purchase brass or aluminum replacement gears kits:

http://www.rodneydickman.com/retail_new.html

Problem solved. My headlights went up on my LT1 T/A until I did this repair.

Yup. Get this repair it will solve all problems once you get that stripped gear replaced. Fixed my car, same issue.

The body control module remembers it didn't see the torque load on the motor last time so that is why they pop up when you turn on just the parking lights (with or without the foglights).

[vannatte]

Yup. Get this repair it will solve all problems once you get that stripped gear replaced. Fixed my car, same issue.

The body control module remembers it didn't see the torque load on the motor last time so that is why they pop up when you turn on just the parking lights (with or without the foglights).

Better than I could've explained it! When I bought my first Trans Am I thought the lights were supposed to go up when you turned the foglights on until I did some research.

[Al Hazz]

how hard is this kit to install? could i do it myself half way easy or would i have to take it somewhere

[vannatte]

It's not difficult at all. Turn the lights on, unplug them, turn the lights off, remove the trim, remove a few 10mm bolts and the motor slides out. I kept the light propped up with a towel while I was doing the repair. Pop the cover off of the motor, swap gears, slap some grease in there and put it all back together. I hope you got the braces & bumper along with the gears. Mine stopped working within a few weeks since I didn't use the braces. The glue isn't strong enough to hold the cover back on the motor and it pops off. The repair is worthless without the braces. I did this repair on my old 94 T/A, but I think its the exact same repair on an LS1.

[patriot1136]

I just did this repair this weekend. It works as promised but is waaaay more difficult then they make it out to be. It took me and my dad hours to do, there are some bolts that are just so damn hard to get to.

[Too Fast]

Yeah not the easiest. It is much easier on '97 and earlier cars, not so much stuff in the way. 10mm wrench and 1/4 drive socket/ratchet makes it a little easier. I think I had to use a 10mm deep socket maybe?

[patriot1136]

yeah its a 10 mm however the third bolt in the back there wasnt enough room to get a socket on it so I had to use a wrench and it took forever cause theres no room to turn it. plus you have to have a wrench on the other side to hold it to keep it from spinning and theres no room for that either.

[vannatte]

yeah its a 10 mm however the third bolt in the back there wasnt enough room to get a socket on it so I had to use a wrench and it took forever cause theres no room to turn it. plus you have to have a wrench on the other side to hold it to keep it from spinning and theres no room for that either.

I bought a 10mm ratcheting wrench specifically for this repair and it worked well in the hard-to-reach areas.

[patriot1136]

ok now i have the problem where my left headlight goes up while the right one goes down and vice versa. they are not going up and down at the same time like they are supposed to

[Too Fast]

Uh, have not heard of that one. Maybe do this: turn the headlights off. Now, whichever one is not down, open the hood and manually turn it down all the way. Next, turn the lights on and off and see if it is fixed, or if it changes anything. Maybe they are not in the correct phase.

[Y2KPewterSS]

I bought a 10mm ratcheting wrench specifically for this repair and it worked well in the hard-to-reach areas.

A 10mm ratcheting wrench is any fbody owners best tool :yup:

[NorthwoodDavid]

how hard is this kit to install? could i do it myself half way easy or would i have to take it somewhere

OR, you can take the cheap way out of it. Just turn the drive gear half a turn and use the other side of the gears. Thats what i did and its worked fine so far. that was about 5 months ago too.

[NorthwoodDavid]

hear it goes take a look

http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67554

[Too Fast]

hear it goes take a look

http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67554

Yes this work, temporarily. Fixed mine for 15 months, then it stripped again.

[99Bandit]

Im also having problems with mine, but its nothing discribed in the forums. Mine is more like the head lights are free falling back into the car. Would the brass gears fix this problem also?

[bottomsup]

i got a new motor at oreillys for $65, Dont want to mess with changing gears, lifetime warranty so pull it back out and get a new motor.

[patriot1136]

woah wait, O'Reilly's sells the motors for under $100???!!! Dude if thats true that is badass!

[bottomsup]

yes it is i got it today and put it in, works great. it was 65.99 with tax.

[Fred H.]

Be careful to pay attention to the direction the bolts go in. If you mount them with the bolts in from the wrong direction, the mechanism will get hung up on the protruding bolt end and nut. Take a close look at each bolt and which side of the motor the nut is positioned on, and put them back in the same way.

I called OReily and the part numbers they gave me for a 2002 Firebird are:

49-124 (Right side)
49-125 (Left side)

There is a $20 core charge on them as well, so I guess they are taking the old ones back and rebuilding them and reselling em. They also listed just a gear for the motor, not sure if it is metal or plastic though.

I also installed the metal gear kit from Rodney Dickman http://www.rodneydickman.com/n113.html and have been real happy with the results. This cost me about $80 to do both right and left sides, so it was cheaper than replacing the motors with the Oriely ones, and I don't know if the Oreily motors have metal or plastic gears in them. It took a few hours, but wasn't too hard. The back bolt is the only one that is hard to get to. A 10mm Crafstman box end "Gear Wrench" made it go a lot easier. You will have to struggle with the bolts whether you rebuild it with new gears, or just replace it, so it seems like the Rodney kit is a better value. Once I got the new metal gears installed, I let the epoxy on the cover cure overnight and then reinstalled them. I got the total kit that included the new metal support and new dampers as well. The metal supports help prevent the stress from the motor breaking the epoxy bond. I also used the cheaper aluminum gear. This is the second set of motors I have rebuilt with his kit.

[vannatte]

Be careful to pay attention to the direction the bolts go in. If you mount them with the bolts in from the wrong direction, the mechanism will get hung up on the protruding bolt end and nut. Take a close look at each bolt and which side of the motor the nut is positioned on, and put them back in the same way.

I called OReily and the part numbers they gave me for a 2002 Firebird are:

49-124 (Right side)
49-125 (Left side)

There is a $20 core charge on them as well, so I guess they are taking the old ones back and rebuilding them and reselling em. They also listed just a gear for the motor, not sure if it is metal or plastic though.

I also installed the metal gear kit from Rodney Dickman http://www.rodneydickman.com/n113.html and have been real happy with the results. This cost me about $80 to do both right and left sides, so it was cheaper than replacing the motors with the Oriely ones, and I don't know if the Oreily motors have metal or plastic gears in them. It took a few hours, but wasn't too hard. The back bolt is the only one that is hard to get to. A 10mm Crafstman box end "Gear Wrench" made it go a lot easier. You will have to struggle with the bolts whether you rebuild it with new gears, or just replace it, so it seems like the Rodney kit is a better value. Once I got the new metal gears installed, I let the epoxy on the cover cure overnight and then reinstalled them. I got the total kit that included the new metal support and new dampers as well. The metal supports help prevent the stress from the motor breaking the epoxy bond. I also used the cheaper aluminum gear. This is the second set of motors I have rebuilt with his kit.

Great price for new motors, but I'd be concerned they are rebuilding them with the same nylon gears and they'll strip again and then you're out all that money.

[bottomsup]

I am not sure how they are rebuilding them. All i cared for at the time getting it fixed with the warranty i dont care if gear or motor breaks/quits i will take it out and get a new one. Thanks Fred for the link.