Firebird headlamp

[Brett S]

grinding? Okay, so this just happened out of nowhere, which I thought was kind of odd.

I just got home, and when I shut off my headlights, they went down like normal. However, when the left eyelid went down, the motor stayed on for about 5 seconds after the eyelid closed and kept grinding the gears inside the motor. Anyone had any experiences with this, and any ideas how to fix it? Is it possibly a bad actuator, or a bad relay in the switch...?
I heard someone talking about taking out the stripped gear and rotating it as a temporary fix. Is it possible I can do this until I could afford the brass gears?

 

[dodge man]

yes that's typical with fire birds,for them to do that ,just replace the motor assembly on it,used you can get for about 40 bucks for the whole assembly and just change the cover so it will match,or tear it all apart and replace the motor,i usually replace the whole thing,its easier and faster done like this,and the outer cover comes off so they will match,good luck.

 

[G P]

The headlamp motors have plastic drive gears. One is likely stripped out. There are updated brass gears available for about 70 dollars. If you are mechanically inclined you can do this yourself. But, this only applies to pretty late model Firebirds and Camaros. Ask your dealer about the parts. Hope this helps. Yes you could rotate the gear but it will just strip again. The plastic teeth are all just as brittle as the ones that stripped.