Headlight Doors

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rlafash
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 3:25 pm
Location: Wilmington, DE

Headlight Doors

Post by rlafash » Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:02 pm

Beginning to have an "intermittent" problem with the left side headlight door on my 2002 Firehawk. It fails to open at times. Any advice on where to start in attempting to resolve the problem?

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NBrehm
Posts: 236
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Location: New York

Re: Headlight Doors

Post by NBrehm » Thu Apr 07, 2016 4:41 pm

Usually it is either a bad motor or a bad gear in the motor. I would start there. If you turn them on and hear the motor but it doesn't move the gear is probably missing some teeth. Very common
-Nick
2001 Formula Firehawk #293

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randybirdhawk
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Re: Headlight Doors

Post by randybirdhawk » Thu Apr 14, 2016 1:52 pm

Probably the plastic gear wearing on one side.

You can try rotating it 180 degrees so it uses the other half. Take the rubber turn boot off or use it to manually turn the knob on top of the headlight motor. Turn the knob so the headlight rises. Take the plastic cover that is around the headlight off. You will see the shaft coming out the headlight motor and when you turn the knob back and forth you will see it turn at a different ratio.
It has one nut on the end and once you remove the nut just slide the lever that the nut was holding in place out. May take some prying.
While the lever is in the out position, turn the knob till the shaft makes half a turn and slide the lever back on the shaft. The lever has the same flat spots as the shaft so the half turn will line it back up.

Next time it happens either buy a new one with lifetime warranty from O'Reillys or do the brass gear change.
2001 Formula Firehawk #190
SLP 160°F Thermostat, SLP Fan Control Switch, SLP Skip Shift, SLP Tower Brace, SLP Air Box Lid, SLP Smooth Bellows, SLP High Capacity Radiator, and #241 Ported and Polished Heads
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rlafash
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 3:25 pm
Location: Wilmington, DE

Re: Headlight Doors

Post by rlafash » Sat Apr 16, 2016 9:45 am

My thanks for the responses to my headlight door issue. Upon closer inspection I found the "problem" to be caused by the fact that the headlight door was making contact with the front edge of the hood which in turn limited the travel of the headlight door. Adjusted the door and now everything works fine.

CARiD
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Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2016 4:32 am

Re: Headlight Doors

Post by CARiD » Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:18 am

It's a pretty common problem, I've seen it on a couple of firebirds

02 red hawk
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Re: Headlight Doors

Post by 02 red hawk » Fri Apr 29, 2016 9:56 pm

Brass gears are the way to go for a permanent fix.

02 red hawk
Posts: 289
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Re: Headlight Doors

Post by 02 red hawk » Fri Jul 15, 2016 12:08 am

If anybody out there still likes to play with plastic, I will have 4 mint condition plastic gears for dirt cheap sale. Pm me if you are interested & I can send pics to your email.

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