So the motor is starting to go out on one of my headlights and I've been thinking, is there any way to replace them with something that goes a lot faster? If you watch Miata pop-up headlights they are quite quick.
Would installing Miata actuators (or something similar) be difficult? Has anyone done a headlight mod like this before?
If you have a pre 87 (series 1 motors) change to 87-88 (series 2 motors) You will need a complete front harness from an 87-88 and the motors with their mounting bolts. Check the mall as they do come up from time to time. I also believe dodgerunner did a write up on modifying the series 1 wire harness to a series 2 if you cannot find what you need. Also check to see if you have a local 'pic and pull' as a source. The difference is day to night!
I did the Gen 1 to Gen 2 swap a couple of months ago and they are far superior. The up/down time is about 1/2 of what it used to be. Well worth the cost and effort, and the motors are quieter and easier to work on if you have to.
If you want fast, figure out how to get rid of the headlight door springs. That would make the Fiero motors operate faster and let you swap in something geared for more speed and less torque. It's not worth pursuing anything until you get rid of those springs.
Very very very simple; Remove the springs, and then drive above 50-60 mph.....the headlight doors will flip right up.
I put a new hood on my 85 SE, and then was cooking thru a transfer ramp up to approx' 80 mph......They popped right up! Found out the old hood had 2 springs per side, while the new hood only had 1 per side....Installed 2 more springs and took it up to 100 and they stayed down......You could remove the springs and then any time you clear 50 they would be up.......Or you could just tape them down (But that kind of defeats the whole purpose......)
Very very very simple; Remove the springs, and then drive above 50-60 mph.....the headlight doors will flip right up.
I assumed that was obvious, apparently not. You'd have to connect the door to the headlight mechanism and if done right it would completely solve the door lifting problem. My point is if you don't do the engineering to get rid of the springs, there's not much point in trying to adapt something meant for a lower torque application.
[This message has been edited by Fiero2m4Fastback (edited 11-17-2018).]
I assumed that was obvious, apparently not. You'd have to connect the door to the headlight mechanism and if done right it would completely solve the door lifting problem. My point is if you don't do the engineering to get rid of the springs, there's not much point in trying to adapt something meant for a lower torque application.
Good point. But assuming something is obvious is often the difference between failure and success. Of coarse the headlight designers thought of that and discarded the idea. Imagine the fit and finish problems when you adjust the hood.
Old thread put compared to Miata vid above... Fiero Gen2 is close to same as above. Use any method to DL and count Frames in MPC-HD et al. My Gen2 is ~ 20 frames of 30fps video vs Miata 15-17 frames. Difference is maybe ~ 0.13 second...
Is not just "door springs" but Fiero likely has a lot more mass and loads like a lot more bearing points to move to open/close the doors. If motor(s) or anything else have problem then Gen2 can be slow but not as bad as Gen1. Note that FMVSS 108 (DOT/NHTSA rules) allows 3 sec to open/close. Gen2 is well < 1 sec when everything is in good shape. If your car is slow then look at grounds/power before looking at other things. Crap power/grounds will cause slow motors and worse. See my Cave, Electric Motors If bearing are "bad" etc then many try lube... May work short term and fail far worse weeks/months after because many lubes "eat" plastic bearings and/or hold dirt.
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Originally posted by James Bond 007: There are a few threads, on doing a total headlight swap and doing away with the popup headlights all together.
And most don't know or Very likely simply don't care that most have big problems and/or are illegal.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
