I've always had trouble with my right headlight motor on my 88... Slow, wouldn't open when under battery power alone (car had to be running for the added voltage for more torque) grinding, flat out wouldn't work at times, and most frustratingly, would only go up halfway on rainy days unless I opened the front hood to take load off the motor... I took the sucker out and first off noticed it was a reman unit from an unknown source. I checked play in the "shaft" by pushing up and down on the little cap thing you can spin by hand to open the lights and found a bunch of play, I'd say a good 1/8 inch up and down movement. (The driver side has almost no play.) Upon disassembly the grease on the inside was all dried up. As expected, the white shear pins are still all in one piece, as well as the gear, since the headlight motor still "worked" I took the motor apart further to investigate and didn't notice anything wrong until I watched a video on rebuilding these things.

I watch the guy on YouTube disassembling the thing, and see him pull out a ball bearing that sits under that "worm gear" output shaft of the motor that spins the plastic gear with the shear pins! That bearing is missing from mine! That explains all that play I seem to have there! I'd also assume that this is my problem with the motor being so temperamental at times, humidity and temperature, added play and grinding noises intermittently...

Geez that was a long story.

At any rate, before I buy a reman unit, I wanted to ask anyone on here if they know where I would be able to find a correct size replacement ball bearing. If not, does anyone have a unit all disassembled with the ability to measure it and tell me what the size is to find a replacement?

I'm not gonna go crazy though, these things are fairly common, if I can't get that ball bearing I'm gonna get a reman unit from Cardone and call it a day.

Any words of wisdom would be awesome guys! Thanks!

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"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!

Let's Go Mets!

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

My local Ace Hardware has a drawer of ball bearings with the bolts and washers. You may have a local hardware store. Oddly I'm not sure the box box stores have them?

IIRC Rodney can sell you the replacement balls.

http://rodneydickman.com/catalog/index.php

I don't think he gets on here often, but he's as good a guy as they come and answers his phone.

[This message has been edited by KurtAKX (edited 07-17-2017).]

Actually "BB" missing then Someone mess w/ this and lost it.
BB could still be in there but you don't see. The small free floating BB is easy to missed and can move very easy.

Missing BB then likely have other damage to the motor. Proper adjusted BB keeps the bushes in a small working area on the motor. Out of range and bushes and other sections can get wrecked.

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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

Thanks for the responses guys... I took a quick look around and didn't find any BBs to put in there as my local hardware store closed a few years ago, and I didn't see anything on Rodney's store. I'm thinking I'll cut my losses with this motor as it's probably all wrecked thanks to that BB being missing, as Ogre said may have happened. There is definitely no BB in there, I disassembled it on my kitchen table on top of a paper plate so I wouldn't lose anything. This thing has been nothing but problems from the start, so instead of gambling with it and since I can't locate a new BB locally I'm gonna just get a reman Cardone unit. According to other threads around here they are of decent quality. A *known* Cardone reman is probably of better quality than the no name that one that's always been giving me problems since I've bought the car a few years ago.

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"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!

Let's Go Mets!

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

quote Originally posted by Shho13: Thanks for the responses guys... I took a quick look around and didn't find any BBs to put in there as my local hardware store closed a few years ago, and I didn't see anything on Rodney's store. I'm thinking I'll cut my losses with this motor as it's probably all wrecked thanks to that BB being missing, as Ogre said may have happened. There is definitely no BB in there, I disassembled it on my kitchen table on top of a paper plate so I wouldn't lose anything. This thing has been nothing but problems from the start, so instead of gambling with it and since I can't locate a new BB locally I'm gonna just get a reman Cardone unit. According to other threads around here they are of decent quality. A *known* Cardone reman is probably of better quality than the no name that one that's always been giving me problems since I've bought the car a few years ago.

The question to be asked is why are you removing the worm gear so that the bearing ball is lost. You should be able to rebuild by just taking off the mechanism cover and pulling the large gear and shaft out of the housing. Sometimes a vice grip is needed but they do pull out.

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
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