LeBaron Headlight motor

[Force Fed Mopar]

Well, I can sell you this one for $15 + shipping, lmk if you're interested.

[fleckster]

Thanks to Nate (88pacifica) for coming up this evening and helping me with the motor. With me helping him do all the work, everything got cleaned and polished up. The nylon rollers inside the gear (I didn't pull the gear off the cover to look in that side of the gear the first time I had it apart.) were nothing but chunks. With that cleaned out, it's all back together minus me getting three ball bearings from work next week, packing them with grease and putting them in and the motor should be better than new! I'll keep everyone posted.

Again special thanks to Nate!

[88_pacifica]

Hey, it's the least I could do for a "life saving" TD'er... He's helped me out WAY more than a little "headlight motor" repair! I really didn't do anything other than put it back together the way it came originally.

However, the highlight of my night was when he took me for a ride in his Spirit R/T. All I can say is "wow...." I am truly amazed. I've seen them run and I now they can be made fast, but it was 'uber cool to experience firsthand. It's every bit as fast as my GN, and it's a 14.1 car in it's own right. This may even be quicker... Thanks again for the ride John and I look forward to hanging out again! Let me know next time your bored "twiddling your thumbs..."!

[fleckster]

Daytona's are different, they use 2 seperate motors, one on each light.

The hole for the rod looked fine, so I took it apart to find the problem. Turns out it's the same as power window motors, it has nylon rollers in it that get old and brittle and crumble into little pieces. You can clean out the pieces and use steel ball bearings in place of them though, that's how I fixed the window motors in the Diplomat.

Do you remember what size balls you used? I'm fairly sure I can find them at work after checking around tonight but if I knew the size it would be much easier and quicker.

[fleckster]

I managed to get some ball bearings out of the Fuji Lathe tail stock bearings from once replaced at work. They work great and I have a couple extra sets in case anyone needs them. With all of those machines we have, I can get a ton more! I got them installed and packed with grease. The motor works whisper quiet! I finally get around to putting the motor and torsion rod and everything else back into the car yesterday. It works great! But there was one problem, it was working backwards! When the headlights were turned on, the doors would go up and close and the lights would come on and try and shine through the covers and when the lights were turned off, the doors would drop and the lights would go off. My neighbor across the street who is an Electrical Engineer with Dephi, came over last night to chat and actually wanted to test his new electric trailer brake control by hooking up to my car trailer helped me test and then swap the wires in the connector to get the polarity correct to the headlight motor. It is fantastic to have working headlight doors again!

I want to thank: Nate (88pacifica) for his help in troubleshooting and getting the motor apart, cleaned, and put back together; the maintenance supervisors at work who found the ball bearings for me and now a source for those needing them in the future, my neighbor who helped me get the wires switched; and Force Fed Mopar for pointing me in the direction of the rollers that I didn't locate the first time I took it apart and recommending the ball bearings to replace them. Once again, this Forum proves it worth ten times it's price for the knowledge and friendship that we get from it! You guys rock!

[88_pacifica]

not a problem... that's what we're here for!

[fcasta308]

Posts from 2007, helping me in 2014... This Thanksgiving I'm giving thanks for this forum.