bell crank fix

[Depley]

I took my headlight apart and its very apparent the problem, the slot in the bell crank is not catching anything. The motor spins, works fine, but its just spinning as the flattened part of the shaft is not working as designed. I had downloaded and studied the drawings of reatta.net but I don't have the tools to do this. Where might I find someone that has already fixid this part and sells them fixed? Or someone that has made the washers and sells them?

thanks

depley

[reattadudes]

if you would like to repair it correctly, just get a new crank assembly. it is GM part number 16510108. the cheapest place to buy them is gmpartsdirect.com

the list price is $96, and their price is $56 each, plus shipping/handling. right and left sides are the same.

a word of advice: do both sides. they have both opened the same number of times, and failure of the other side is never far behind. you might also want to consider doing the bushings as well. they bushing sets are a whopping $4.95 per set, and are available from Jason Murphy in Cartersville, GA. his number is

(770) 382-1791, or email at banditnga@yahoo.com.

if this sounds like a lot of extra work and $$$, it isn't. as long as the patient is open, do everything that could be a problem. that way, you won't have to do anything headlight related again for another ten-plus years...unless, of course, you like taking the headlight assemblies apart.

this is also a great time to replace all the bulbs in the turn signal assembly. the sockets will never be more accessible.

Mike

[Depley]

well I am fixing it to sell, so I don't want to spend a whole bunch of money, I just want it to work.

[Vincent Vega]

Reatta.net has some ideas on how to fix the bellcrank. JB Weld has been known to fix it for awhile.

[Depley]

After studying why it was not working I concluded that the nut had not been put on tight enough when they were replaced a few years back, after tightening it as well as I could it seems to be working. All I can say is who ever did the engineering on this part should be flogged. It is just plain bad. Oh and for those of you who have this problem getting the headlights up can be a bit tricky. Finally I turned the lights on, "helped" the offending light up, then unhooked the battery cable, they stayed up, work was easy.

My ac-heater module came in so now my "short" is gone and the a/c works perfectly again.

So now I can put it up forsale.

[Barney Eaton]

Don't blame the "nut", it is a weak design. When the nut is tightned, it forces the (soft) bellcrank against the two very small shoulders on the shaft.

With that said, you will notice there is only that very small area to take the tightning torque.

There was talk at the Plano national about solving the problem. Some think we should remanufacture the part, this is expensive and unnecessary as long as GM has the part, even at their high prices. Several people are planning on looking into solutions.

Stay tuned, we might have a better answer.

[Guest DTerry]

I just drilled a hole plumb through and inserted a tapered hardened pin...with a little JBWeld for good measure. Otherwise it was spring for a new one and I figgered it couldn't hurt. It's worked like new for months now.

[Guest EDBS0]

I have the original washer fix still going strong after 3 years.

Made it a press fit and still no problems.

[Shelby]

Boy what a rip off the GM parts are.

I saw some aircraft parts made by Barnes Aero Space that look almost exactly like the bell crank. It was control arm for a C-130 Made of Stainless steel and was only $16.80 US govenment price.

I talked with them about building parts and the big cost is the setup.

I will get back to the group on this.