Headlight question

[Disifer]

Just bought my 1st f-body yesterday and I'm already having too much fun. The guy that sold it to me told me that the driver's side headlight wouldn't come up unless you did it by hand. I searched a few forums and aside from replacing the headlight motor or whole assembly they suggested a quick free fix of rotating the gear in the motor or buying a bronze gear for the motor so it wouldn't break like the plastic factory one. However, it seemed like all of this only pertained to the 4th gen TA. Mine is an 89 5.0 GTA, all stock except exhaust.

1) will the bronze gear fit a 3rd gen TA?

2) how do i know if it's the motor and not the gear? It makes no grinding noises and the light stays up if I pull it up by hand.

The light stays up with the headlights on even over rough road. It bounces a bit while the passenger side doesn't. They both go down when I turn the lights off but it takes the driver side a couple seconds.

Thanks for any help. I'm sure I'll be posting often.

[Joe 1320]

If the motor is working but needs your hand for assistance, you could try really lubricating all the external moving parts. If the motor works intermittantly, look for loose connections in the headlight module, located on the firewall near the brake booster. It is a large (about the size of a sandwich), black box with two harness connections-one for each light circuit. If the motor is still weak, time for a new one.

The bronze gear is for 4th generation, don't think it swaps to a 3rd. Besides, that is only if the gear is stripped.

[EquatorHeat00]

Fixed my drivers side buzzing headlight with a metal gear from Brent Franker about 5 days ago. Works great! I lived 3 years of buzzing before I decided to fix it. (Silly to wait. Should have done it sooner.)

[Maverick_82]

Disifer, dude, i have a site that is perfect for your situation. There are so many factors that cause so many headlight problems in firebirds, t/a's and gta's. WECLCOME TO THE LIFE OF FIREBIRD OWNERSHIP. This site is orginally for a pontiac Fiero but the motors are the same. this site will help you diagnose the problem and then tell you how to fix it. Good luck.

http://www.fieros.de/en/articles/headlight.html

[Disifer]

Hopefully that'll help. I got 2 used motors off of ebay for $50 incl. s&h. Now the one that wasn't working is trying to work! It'll raise about an inch then stop. I'm gonna try putting some grease on it and see if that helps. Maybe it's just a bit rusty. thx for the link although they only go up to 88 but it looks promising.

[Maverick_82]

Did you ever get your headlight motors working?

[DeWynter]

another good spot is www.thirdgen.org

[smokeum99ta]

i have a similar problem. i just need the brass gears .where do i get from?

[Disifer]

I got new headlight motors a couple of weeks ago but the hinge on the driver's side headlight assembly cracked. I haven't messed with it yet. The pass. side has been working fine but if I put the new motor on the driver side it would probably just strip the gear since the assembly is stuck from the broken hinge. Once I get the new assembly I'll get that fixed........then I'll move onto the axle shafts. I'm really not looking forward to that.

[Disifer]

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/

for your ta smokeum

[DeWynter]

Fortunatly the third gens dont suffer from the same failing gear as the 4th gens.