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Head Light Motor Rebuilding

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Postby Elanlover » Sat 30.09.2006, 22:38

Doc Fizzix wrote:Ok, I am wrong. Was working on the car today (removing the oil cooler) and inside my fenders are also white. My bad


That's ok. If you had the only TRUE color every Lotus should be (white, of course) you'd never have a problem like this at all. :-D
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Postby Doc Fizzix » Sun 01.10.2006, 04:23

Elanlover wrote: If you had the only TRUE color every Lotus should be (white, of course) ... :-D


Red :wink:
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Postby Ekapol » Mon 02.10.2006, 21:04

Was working on the car today (removing the oil cooler) and inside my fenders are also white.


Ah.... I was about to get to my inside fender with a can of green :-D
Last edited by Ekapol on Mon 02.10.2006, 21:07, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby kmckmc » Sun 05.11.2006, 09:09

Image

Image
Elan M100 S2
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Postby Ekapol » Mon 06.11.2006, 06:47

Are those 3 made from wood?

From this website you could get metal version of this gear.

Click Me!

Continue with Electric "Tab", then "1987-1992 Firebird/Trans Am Metal Headlight Gears"

Feeling nostalgic seeing your pictures ;-)
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Postby F1 LOTUS » Mon 06.11.2006, 08:36

Ekapol wrote:Are those 3 made from wood?

From this website you could get metal version of this gear.

Click Me!

Continue with Electric "Tab", then "1987-1992 Firebird/Trans Am Metal Headlight Gears"

Feeling nostalgic seeing your pictures ;-)

Look like good value :)
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Postby kmckmc » Tue 07.11.2006, 15:54

This is a good choice for headlight repair kit.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0047932090


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Postby Ekapol » Tue 07.11.2006, 21:07

Yes, very good value.

Are those 3 pellets original one? Good to see them new though. Look nicer than million crumble pieces.

I would get the delrin parts from Rodney's site or just use the wood pieces you have and keep those 3 as the spare. :D
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Postby flynn23 » Thu 22.05.2008, 22:44

Hello all. I've had a problem with my lights not "rising" consistently for a few months now. If it's cold, they seem to come up, but now that it's summer, they "blink" and I have to manually raise them. A bit embarrassing when the valet asks about it.

I disassembled the actuators and the plastic gears in the spindle under the actuator motors are ground well out of tolerance (there was tons of plastic soot in the casings). I didn't want to crack open the spindle in case I couldn't find a gasket to reseal.

I've noticed the aluminum gear replacement kit from Rodney's link (THANKS!) but I wanted to bump this topic to see if anyone has done this replacement before I order the parts and burn through this holiday weekend doing the work. Any tips? Did replacing the gearing do the trick or was a motor rebuild required too? My actuator motors seem strong and fairly clean, but not sure what the typical duty cycle on these are. Might be a good idea to replace while I'm in there.

Thanks for any tips, tricks, or thoughts.
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Postby Candles » Thu 22.05.2008, 23:34

I think SJ Sportscars do a rebuild kit.
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Postby TheBard » Fri 23.05.2008, 00:40

Quite a lot of us used www.rodneydickman.com/ and his famous headlight rebuild kit.

Normally it is just the plastic bushes that have gone, and the gears will be fine. You can order just the bushes and the repacements are considerably harder.

He also supplies the gaskets needed, and even replacement metal gears, although these can have tolerance issues and need fettling to make smooth moving.

Everything you'll ever need to know is well documented on WikiLEC here.

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Postby flynn23 » Fri 23.05.2008, 18:01

Excellent write up. Thanks for the link and the confirmation.

Cheers,
Scott
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Postby Ekapol » Mon 14.07.2008, 08:19

I rebuilt Lucy's left headlight motor just last Sunday.

This Sunday I replaced Stripey's right headlight motor with a new-rebuilt one I got from Ebay.

Sometimes it didn't work and needed a little help from me.

This time I'm sure the delrin bushes are still good but the brushes in the motor itself are well worn, judging from that when it doesn't work I can just rotate the knob on the motor 1/2 a turn and the headlight popped right up nice and strong.

It almost stopped me from working on it today when I found out that the key for my wheel lock is still at my mechanic shop. Marie quickly texted me that I can just peel of the liner.. and I was like.. heh, that's right :)

So I did it this time without removing the wheel. Just turned the wheel all the way to the right, loosen 3 bolts that hold the wheel liner and peeled it inward.

The whole thing took me just 1 hour this time :banana:


Image
You'll see 2 little cut out on the inside of front fender piece.

Image
These tools are all you need for a quick headlight motor swap. 10mm socket, 8mm socket, open-end wrench, and those 3 little helpers.

Image
New one in there, a tad too shiny glossy black from the Ebay dealer.
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Re: Head Light Motor Rebuilding

Postby nitroman » Sun 08.03.2009, 01:26

Delrin + grease + 18 years = a mess!

Rebuilt the motors I removed a few months back. Now I have 3 spare motors & two rebuild kits left. I'm staying well ahead of the curve in this department!
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Re: Head Light Motor Rebuilding

Postby Enright » Sun 08.03.2009, 19:52

You can stay even further ahead if you make sure all the joints and bearings in the headlight pod linkages are greased too!
Striking fear into the hearts of duplicate posts everywhere...! :P

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Re: Head Light Motor Rebuilding

Postby Gary » Mon 23.03.2009, 20:20

I have 2 headlamp rebuild kits for sale (including the gears and plastic bits) if anyone is interested :P
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Re: Head Light Motor Rebuilding

Postby rip » Tue 24.03.2009, 01:11

Gary wrote:I have 2 headlamp rebuild kits for sale (including the gears and plastic bits) if anyone is interested :P

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Re: Head Light Motor Rebuilding

Postby GeoffSmith » Tue 24.03.2009, 07:33

Thought I was seeing things: Gary, posting on a technical thread? :lol:
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Re: Head Light Motor Rebuilding

Postby Paul.P » Tue 24.03.2009, 07:54

GeoffSmith wrote:Thought I was seeing things: Gary, posting on a technical thread? :lol:


Ah yes Geoff, but it wasn't a very technical post, was it !
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Re: Head Light Motor Rebuilding

Postby GeoffSmith » Tue 24.03.2009, 08:09

Paul.P wrote:
GeoffSmith wrote:Thought I was seeing things: Gary, posting on a technical thread? :lol:


Ah yes Geoff, but it wasn't a very technical post, was it !


:wink:
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