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I have found that the best way to deal with ice on the Firebird headlights is to deploy them and leave them up until the weather passes. You do this by turning the headlights on and then simply pulling the plug at the control module. Pull the one with four wires on it. This prevents the motor from tearing up the plastic gear that we all have come to hate in the actuator.
The other problem too many of us have is that we strip the plastic gear or the whole housing of the actuator becomes sloppy loose. I think this is because the motor is too strong for what it does and the assmbly is too weak. Since we can't make the housing stronger, I think it makes sense to weaken the motor. I have measured the motor to pull 2.75 amps peak. This is when you hear that horrible vibration because the gears are skipping. I inspected my gears and they were fine. The crimped housing sucks. What I am going to try is to cut that power in half by installing four 2.5 ohm resistors, one for each motor wire, that is, two per motor. The motors will turn slower and gentler, but should work just as well and not self-destruct the housing and gears. This is fine if you dont mind waiting 3 seconds insead of one and a half for your headlights to move. The cost will be about two bucks. I will let everyone know how this works
The other problem too many of us have is that we strip the plastic gear or the whole housing of the actuator becomes sloppy loose. I think this is because the motor is too strong for what it does and the assmbly is too weak. Since we can't make the housing stronger, I think it makes sense to weaken the motor. I have measured the motor to pull 2.75 amps peak. This is when you hear that horrible vibration because the gears are skipping. I inspected my gears and they were fine. The crimped housing sucks. What I am going to try is to cut that power in half by installing four 2.5 ohm resistors, one for each motor wire, that is, two per motor. The motors will turn slower and gentler, but should work just as well and not self-destruct the housing and gears. This is fine if you dont mind waiting 3 seconds insead of one and a half for your headlights to move. The cost will be about two bucks. I will let everyone know how this works
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