Plus 2 electric lift motor for headlamps
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:29 pm
I’m now rebuilding the car following respray etc. I had previously adapted the headlamp lift mechanism to use a Mazda MX5 headlamp motor. I had done some testing during the body repair/prep stage and had thought it was OK. But..........putting it back together I find it is not quite as hunky dory as I’d thought.
So I’m running the motor through a PWM to reduce the lift speed by around 50% as it all looked a bit too violent for the flimsy lotus fibreglass (just in passing I would mention that I bonded on a new front end and the glass layup on this is a lot thinner and hence more flex than the original).
I’m finding it is smooth to lift the pods, but when they lower there is a lot of juddering. I’m assuming this is a function of the weight of the pods trying to drive the motor and the motor resisting this force. As per the photo you may be able to see a solid link connecting the pivot arms on the motor cam and headlamp bar. This solid link is rose jointed at both ends, so there is really no compliance in the linkage.
Thoughts to resolve the problem include - replacing rose joints with rubber bush, adding some sort of damping or perhaps adding a spring between the actuating arms.
What have other done, do you see this problem?
So I’m running the motor through a PWM to reduce the lift speed by around 50% as it all looked a bit too violent for the flimsy lotus fibreglass (just in passing I would mention that I bonded on a new front end and the glass layup on this is a lot thinner and hence more flex than the original).
I’m finding it is smooth to lift the pods, but when they lower there is a lot of juddering. I’m assuming this is a function of the weight of the pods trying to drive the motor and the motor resisting this force. As per the photo you may be able to see a solid link connecting the pivot arms on the motor cam and headlamp bar. This solid link is rose jointed at both ends, so there is really no compliance in the linkage.
Thoughts to resolve the problem include - replacing rose joints with rubber bush, adding some sort of damping or perhaps adding a spring between the actuating arms.
What have other done, do you see this problem?