Hey,

Been having some problems with the headlights recently. When i hold the hood up, the headlights have some play but they eventually raise up. Right when i drop the hood, the headlights struggle to rise. The car came with no service manual, so it's hard to diagnose.

Any suggestions.

Thanks

Your motors need to be rebuilt. The good news is that the rebuild kit costs about $5 and you can do it over lunch and still have time to eat lunch. Do a search on 87-88 headlight rebuild.

quote Originally posted by jscott1: Your motors need to be rebuilt. The good news is that the rebuild kit costs about $5 and you can do it over lunch and still have time to eat lunch. Do a search on 87-88 headlight rebuild.

For the most part this is true, if the issue is the 3 plastic pucks that transmit the torque from the plastic gear to the metal part pressed on the shaft.

I just recently had one go bad on my 88. I pulled it apart expecting to see the plastic pucks had turned to powder, but instead the metal part that was pressed on the shaft was spinning. I drilled the metal part and shaft and pinned them together and everything works again.

See my Cave, Gen 2 HL Motor

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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)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

I have only encountered one situation where the three plastic pegs didn't fix the problem.
One of my large plastic gears had a crack in it, which allowed the perimeter (and teeth) of the gear to push out-of-round just slightly. This caused it to bind the small drive gear which, in turn, would cause the motor to shut off.
With the hood open, the headlight worked pretty normally. With the hood closed, it took too much force (and current) to raise the light. Fortunately I had a spare gear.

But it's probably the plastic pegs.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: But it's probably the plastic pegs.

Sorry I should have qualified that 99% of the time the $5 rebuild kit will fix the problem. I've never run into a situation where that was not true.