Jump to content

Reatta headlights VS Fiero headlights


Guest Richard D

Recommended Posts

Guest Richard D

Back when I was younger and believed car magazines I bought a new 1984 FIERO. As soon as the odometer hit 12,000 miles the headlight motors would not shut off. Being an engineer I was amazed that the motor switches used the worm gear on the end of the armature to actually pull or push the entire armature to stop the motor at the end of travel. This put a lot of stress on the gear train and the nylon gears would get stripped. Please someone tell me that our cars use a different mechanism.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The motor is very similar but a motor controller has been added. It is under the relay box (drivers side) which is in front of the air cleaner.

The controller has some logic and it senses the current spike when the headlights get to the end of their travel and shuts off power, then the next time you push the button it reverses the motor and repeats the process.

When either the bellcrank strips or the rollers fail, there is no current spike so the motor will "time out" The controllers seldom fail, it is the mechanical parts that fail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The motor is very similar but a motor controller has been added. It is under the relay box (drivers side) which is in front of the air cleaner.

The controller has some logic and it senses the current spike when the headlights get to the end of their travel and shuts off power, then the next time you push the button it reverses the motor and repeats the process.

When either the bellcrank strips or the rollers fail, there is no current spike so the motor will "time out" The controllers seldom fail, it is the mechanical parts that fail.

Nice explanation. I was theorizing something like that occurs, but didn't know the specifics.

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Kitskaboodle

Not only that, the relay or "limit switches" are sometimes finicky and the contacts dont open or close properly. By the way , them limit switches are kinda pricey. :(

If your a " smart" Fiero owner, you would have swapped over to Gen. 2 by now . :)

Kit

Edited by Kitskaboodle
Typo (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Richard D

Thanks all, after the second engine fire GM bought the car back. What I did eas mount micro switches on home made brackets and tie them into the wire harness. Even if the gear train did not have enough force to move the armature I had the switches mounted so when headlights hit end of travel they would hit the micro switch. With fine tuning I could get them to stop at the full up position. Closed was not so critical

Best Regards to all,

Richard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Kitskaboodle

The Gen 2 design wasn't applied to the Fiero until 1987. The gen 1 design consists of two motor halves riveted together. Up/ down switching was controlled by limit switches. By the way, did you know the limit switches have mercury in glass tubes?

As for the motor housings they are a different shape than the Reatta but the transmission internals are identical and can be swapped back and forth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Kitskaboodle

I'm 100% sure. ALL Fiero's had the GEN 1 headlight system through 1986. You have an 86 GT Padgett? Go out and take a look at it. If your motor housings are two halves riveted together, than you have the GEN 1 system. If the top half of the motors are round, barrel shaped, then someone converted your car to GEN 2. If someone wants to post a few pics I happen to have my 85 GT with me today and I could take a few pics for you. Both my GTs have been upgraded to GEN 2.

Kit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...