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My headlight is stuck down...

E

echostatic

Turbooo
Okay, forget all the other problems I have, this one must take top priority, because it's the one that makes my car look flat out retarded. The passenger side headlight is stuck down. The driver side headlight isn't in much better condition, I have to help it up. It tends to "flop" otherwise. The first time my headlights gave me trouble it was from those nylon bushings being ground to powder. When I had that problem, I could just turn the knobs to raise/lower the headlights. Not this time. No amount of turning accomplishes anything on either light, the knobs just free-spin when the switch is pressed. What's worn out?
 
I had mine stuck down before. It happened when the headlight buckets got trapped, when I changed the nose emblem and took the metal thing that the hood latch sits on off and when I put it back on they were trapped. You could only hear the motor spinning when the switch was turned on .
 
Everything is clear on mine, they were getting kind of iffy for a bit, having trouble raising. I would have to hit the switch and get out and help them up by hand. Something has worn itself out.
 
That's the problem I had the last time, the gel bushings had failed so I replaced them with... I forget what exactly, but it worked for a while. What's strange to me is that I could raise the headlights by turning the knobs the first time, but not this time. It may be the same issue though... It's worth a shot I reckon.
 
Y'know, that could very well be the case... I guess I'll have to crack it open and look at it, and with the weather tomorrow being in the 70s, I can't think of a better time to do it.
 
I pulled the drivers side headlight out of the car and seperated the motor from it and broke it down to this point.

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It's been a while since I've done this so I don't remember... How do you get the gear out? I pulled on the spindle but it seems to be attatched to the thing.

I did manage to get my passenger side headlight to raise up at least. Since apparently only half the gear is used, I turned the headlight on, let it run until it stopped, then unplugged it and turned the switch off. Then I just plugged it back in and turned the headlight on so the gear rotated to some better teeth (I assume) and was able to unlock the headlight. Heh.
 
Thank ya Jan, I remember last time I pulled the top half of the motor off and springs went flying. I didn't remember if I had to do that or not, but I definitely remember it being a huge pain to reassemble. I think I'm gonna go ahead and order aluminum gears. I hope to own this car 20 years from now and I don't wanna have to do this again :)
 
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