GySgt1811

All,

This is probably so obvious that everyone will say to me, "Dooh, dummy, we all do that. Did you just catch on?" However, I have not seen it before and it worked for me.

A about 2 years ago my right headlight motor began to make the famous grinding noise. So I bought a new one and installed it. No problem and it worked fine. About a month ago I began to get the "graunch-ch-ch-ch-ch" noise when I closed the headlight door. (It has the nylon gear and it has to be sawed/dremeled open and glued back together in order to install a bronze gear.)

So... Rather than buy a new motor, or rebuild this one, I simply followed the procedures to remove the old motor until I got to the part where you remove the screw that retains the articulated opening lever arm that holds the arm to the head light motor. If you do this you will noticed that the torque is transmitted from the rotating output shaft of the headlight motor to the articulating arm by an output shaft with flats on it that slip into the flattened receiver hole on the articulated arm. (Got that? ) This keeps the output shaft and the arm in lock step with out slipping and getting out of timing. I realized that the large nylon drive gear within the headlight motor does NOT rotate through 180 degrees when raising the headlights. So...

Here it comes...

With the articulating arm free of the headlight motor output shaft, I manually (drive **** on the opposite/engine bay end of the headlight motor) rotated the headlight motor until the output shaft flats had rotated 180 degrees. I then re-attached the articulating arm just as if I were attaching it to a new motor, re-assembled the entire headlight
assembly - this is important - manually rotated the assembly to the closed position (Both the right and the left headlights should now be in the closed position.) and tried them out. The procedure worked. It didn't cost me anything but about 45 minutes of time and I've doubled the life of the headlight motor.

At the next failure I'll buy a rebuilt motor with the bronze gear. But I should be good for another year or two with this little life extending trick.

Best Regards to all,

Gunny John

(And BTW, I learned another thing. My '99 is considered a "late" model as it was manufactured in the Spring of '99. I didn't realize this and ordered a 1999 headlight motor. It wouldn't fit - big time! After talking with the clerk on the phone where I bought it, we decided I needed a 2000 model motor. So, heads up. The motor design was changed to the 2000 model in late '99.)

lionelhutz

Ya, I've been telling people for years to do that to determine if their headlight problems are due to a worn gear.

You don't have to manually close (or open) the headlight after putting it together so it matches the opposite side. Just cycle the lights on and off and it will synchronize.

As far as I have seen though the headlight motors are swappable. The newer design is plastic and glued together instead of having the metal removable cover.

GySgt1811

Thanks, lionelhutz. However, ON MINE, (ymmv) the '99 motor that was sent to me as a replacement has a totally different bolt mounting pattern that the '00 I finally ordered. It was for a '97, '98 and early '99. The '99 I first ordered, thinking it would just fall in place, silly me, was the bolt together type. The '00 I finally ordered was the glue together type, and naturally, had a bolt pattern that fit perfectly. Also, the '00 motor matched in construction the good drive motor on the left side of the car.

Later, when I went to a Chevy dealership and asked about the difference in the drive motors they showed one type in their records for a '99 VIN up to xxxx and another for VIN above yyyyy.

Thanks for the feedback; I new some one surely had figured this out before, but it was new to me.

Regards,

Gunny John

n8dogg

That was a confusing read LOL. Could have simply said; Remove nut that holds headlight door arm to motor, slide arm off motor, manually turn headlight motor 180*, reinstall arm to motor. Done.

Bill Curlee

I too, have been telling people this for years BUT, 9 times out of 10, they will rip out the motor and put new parts in.

Glad that you are thinking and fixing!

Thought of the day:

Have you cleaned out your DRAIN UDDERS since you purchased your car?????????

Bill

GySgt1811

Wow! When Bill Curlee comments on my thread, and in a positive way, I feel good!

Yes, Bill, I checked the udders last August, but you can bet I will check them again before the day is out.

Thanks for your comments,

Gunny John

PS. And n8dogg, you are correct. Pity my poor students, I lecture like that in class! (Well, maybe not quite that bad.) I was trying to be very exact in my description for someone who hadn't been into those workings. Thanks for making it simple. Maybe I'll send all my threads to your for edit before submission.