This is a new one for me. I went outside to have a smoke and heard creek, click. Comming from my car car. I had just parked it 30min ago so I thought it might be the front suspension settling in and what not. I did not think much of it. I came out a few hours later and noticed the car was making the same noise. I popped the hood and head it comming from the passanger side headlight motor. I reached down and grabbed the knob to crank it up or down and it was hot. I reached around the touched the motor itself and it almost burned my finger. The motor I guess had been clicking a tiny bit on and off.

Does anyone know why it was doing this and how to fix it.

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David hotrodfiero@shaw.ca
85GT 2.9 4spd

www.david.westcoastfieros.com

Did the headlight motor run continuously or was it turning on and off repeatedly? It kind of sounds like the switch or something doesn't know that its all the way down and so it keeps trying. You might be able to pull the little switch thing in the headlight assembly and switch it with the one from the other side and see if it starts running correctly. Sort of a trial and error procedure to see if it something small that failed.

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Jake
'85 Fiero SC (new duke)
'95 Grand Am SE

(Looking for a cheap parts car in or near NC. PM me if you've got one.)

Pre 87 HL motors had torque to stop motors in them. The reason yours is clicking is because the torque is not shutting one of the switches off. To be sure, give the top knob a twist and see if the noise stops. If it does you will need to remove the motor and might as well rebuild if not done recently, but remove the 3 1/4" screws on the side of the motor. You will be able to see the switches. It may be possible to bend the switch a bit and make it cut off, but don't count on it. Prob have to rebuild it. Good luck!

Phil

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GTDude
OVER 25 years GM experience

Yes, Gen 1 motors should be rebuilt if they are acting up. This is fairly expencive and not without problems. Even when it goes right you still have a gen 1 system that will probably tear itself up agin in the not distant future from a bad relay or any of a dozen other things.

There is another option and it's not as difficult as people think.

Convert them to the later Gen 2 system. You can get the whole set of parts from allot of salvage yards for pretty cheap. This does away with torque switches and relays. Notes on what to look for are in my cave. If you fish out the part of the harness that goes from the module to the motors, the whole project needs only about 6 wire splices.

If the later motors ever quit thay are much easier to fix. In most cases the only thing that ever quits are the 3 little dowels. $10 for parts from rodney to fix two gen 2 motors.

Unless you are showing the car in a strict factory class, no one will ever care that you've got the newer lift motors.

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11-Sept-01, The day the world as we knew it ended.

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 11-24-2002).]

True story...

One mid-summer morning I woke up earley...i went to go make sure that the Cadero was in good working order...i find that the passenger side headlight motor is MELTED all the way down and is pretty much melted into place.

It took a few hours but i cleaned it up and found a new Firebird motor to replace it w/...wierdest thing EVER.

*This happened on 87-88 headlight motors*

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Steven Rossi
2M4 Cadero Converted GT

That's pretty wierd alright.... I didn't mean the Gen 2 lights are perfect but you've got to admit they are far less problem than the Gen 1 system.

How many threads on Gen 1 problems do we get every month? Someone is posting about these things at least every few days. This includes one problem after another where people rebuilt one or both motors and the things still won't work right.

In almost every thread on the Gen 2 system the fix is contack Rodney for dowels. You get a few off beat things but most are the shot dowels.

I stand by what I've said before... I wouldn't waste time or money on the Gen 1 system unless I had to for a factory class show. If I bought a Fiero with that system, one of my first priorities would be ripping it out.

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 11-24-2002).]