84 corvette - Headlight problem

[gadget]

Car parked in garage,battery tender is on.walked by garage ,sounded like a motor running.walked over to the corvette and looking and following the noise it was the right headlight motor running while the car is off and locked up.you can hear it clicking like the gears and the headlight casing is moving in short bursts opening and closings.I disconnected the battery and traced the wires to that motor (right) motor and also disconnected the plug.lat r I put all back connected and it started doing ithis
again.next I tried with the light clicking I pulled the light switch on at the dash ,the lights rotated to on position and I pushed switch in and they closed but the same motor kept spinning until I disconnected the battery. Hoping someone knows possibly why it's doing this.The head light motors are approx a little bit over a year old.they were bought new.Thanks for your time.

 

[Hot Rod Roy]

That's an indication of bad gears in the headlight motor. If that was a "new" motor only a year ago, somebody did you wrong! If they put in new gears, and called it a "new" assembly, they probably needed to replace the motor bushings, too, but didn't check them. I'd contact the place that sold you that "new" assembly!

Search this forum on rebuilding your headlight motor if you can't get a good resolution from your original source. It's not hard to do. Be aware: the "early" ('84-'87) headlights are different than the "late" ('88-'96) design!

Here's a link for rebuilding the '84-'87 headlight motor. The motor in this video has worn motor bushings, which is evidenced by the very poor wear pattern on the large gear, and the very short life! I suspect this is the same problem in your motor.

Be sure to carefully clean the two limit switches at the end of the motor shaft, near the commutator brushes. Use a light weight white grease, like Lubriplate or CRC Sta-Lube on the motor bushings and the gears. The headlight motor can be removed without removing the entire headlight assembly.

I cleaned and lubed the headlight motors in my '84 ten years ago (NO NEW PARTS), and they still work just fine! (I should probably do it again.)

'84 - '87 Headlight Gear Replacement - Corvette Forum

 

[gadget]

Head light motor

Hot rod roy,thank you ever so much.I will remove this motor and check it out .I'm trying to get to it,it's in newer garage just no heat yet.again thank you and I'll just look to get whatever I need bushings,and or gears.I'm anxious to get to it,cause I want to know also and I'll keep you informed.Thank you again.