1986 SE 2.8 AT. About a year ago I had the passenger side headlight motor rebuilt. Now the puppy is giving me issues. A few weeks ago the pass side would not go down and I have to pop the hood and push down on the knob and reset the contacts and it would retract. Well this week it is doing the opposite. It will not go up but retracts just fine. I think the car relized it is harder for me to turn the the knob 23 or so time rather then just push down on the knob. My car hates me I guess. I did some searching thru the archives at adding custom headlights and junking the factory system. Only problem is that most of the pics are expired or just not linked anymore. I noticed on ebay a custom 55watt high/low beam assembly the uses a pair of H3 bulbs that is made for a motorcycle. DOT approved? Add doesn't say so who knows? It measures 6 1/4" wide x 2 3/4" tall and a depth of 5". It comes in a aluminum sealed unit with a mounting bracket on the back. My thought is to remove the factory light/motor assembly. Build a frame to support this new custom headlight assembly and keep the factory door. As this unit is less than 3" tall it will give the car the sleepy eye look with the door laying on this new headlight. As I am removing the motor it will always be up the 2 3/4". Just wanting some input from others out there that have done headlight conversions. I live in Indiana and currently we have no vehicle inspections. What do you think? Thanks!!
Have you tried swapping the relays on the sides of the headlaight assembly from one side to the other? If the problem goes with the relay, you can still get those relays at the parts stores. If the problem stays with the motor, then it's internal to the motor. I can rebuild your motor for you with a turnaround of one to two days, replacing the gears and bump stops. LMK if you're interested.
I have a set of aftermarket flushmounts in one of my cars and they are basically worthless for night driving. I've been looking for a replacement and I'm currently tinkering with a couple of pairs of driving lights mounted in their place. I'd also be interested in knowing what motorcycle headlight assembly you're looking at if you could send me a link.
Have you tried swapping the relays on the sides of the headlaight assembly from one side to the other? If the problem goes with the relay, you can still get those relays at the parts stores. If the problem stays with the motor, then it's internal to the motor. I can rebuild your motor for you with a turnaround of one to two days, replacing the gears and bump stops. LMK if you're interested.
I have a set of aftermarket flushmounts in one of my cars and they are basically worthless for night driving. I've been looking for a replacement and I'm currently tinkering with a couple of pairs of driving lights mounted in their place. I'd also be interested in knowing what motorcycle headlight assembly you're looking at if you could send me a link.
I recently replace the entire front lighting harness. I had other issues with the parking / turn signal lights. When I did all of that I installed a brand new relay on the pass side. It did not make a difference over the old relay. I really just want to eliminate the whole pop up headlight system. One less headache to deal with on the car. I like to see some of your conversions. Here is a link to the light I found on Ebay.
If you really want to get rid of the pop-up headlights and want the car to look good, here's one of the nicer conversions I've seen. Not cheap though, but worth it if this is the way you want to go.
Originally posted by Ducati Jones: I live in Indiana and currently we have no vehicle inspections. What do you think? Thanks!!
Cops can still give you a ticket for Illegal HL setups.
------------------ 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)
If the relays didn't solve the problem, then I'd look inside the motor to see if the brushes are still attached to the spring arms. Sometimes there's enough contact between the metal spring arms and the commutator surface that the motor will run when given a little nudge, but it can't really generate enough energy to start or efficiently operate the motor under load. If one or both the brushes have broken off, then replacing the limiter switch set will probably solve your problem.
As for replacing with the Generation 2 motors, there's no doubt that they are far superior to the Generation 1 system. BUT, there are only a very limited number of Generation 2 systems out there. Not enough that every 84-86 Fiero owner can have one. So, we must continue to repair our old systems until someone develops the limiter switch. The two parts of the motor prone to failure are the gears and the limiter switch. The limiter switch is the only part not available as a new item and until all parts become available, the only alternative is try to obtain a Generation 2 system or go to flushmounts or full time low profile.
doubleC4 has addressed a major problem with flushmounts. That being that the forerunners were all set at the back of the opening. This causes major light cutoff at the bottom and both sides, due to the shielding of the body and hood. Remember, the stock headlight sits above and at the front of the headlight opening. Totally unobstructed. Moving flushmounts to the front and slightly elevated above the plane of the hood helps to improve roadway illumination.
That motorcycle headlight doesn't look too bad. It could probably be adapted to fit into the Fiero. Only problem I immediately saw is that most cars with quad headlights have the low beam to the outside and the high beam to the inside. With two of these headlight pods, both high beams would be to the same side and both low beams would be to the other side of the headlight pod.
I had not thought that far ahead about the location of High / low beams with that motorcycle unit. I guess I need to see if the internals could be flipped or mount one unit inverted? Good call on that. I agree with the notion of that everyone cannot convert to the Gen 2 set-up. That is why I have not even concidered it. I'm pretty set on a fixed headlight set up. I'm toying with the notion of creating my own covers and removing the doors. I will check into some of the links that were sent in this thread and do some more research. Thanks for all the feedback.
If the lenses on the motorcycle headlight are a high and low beam, they will be fluted to direct the light in a specific direction. Inverting them will cause an improper light scatter. I've seen a couple of older Nissan Z's that have what appears to be a single low profile headlight, but have been unable to view one up close. Maybe an auto parts store could advise on available single unit low profile headlights.
