LLCooLM495

TL;DR: Put in metal gears a few years ago, one side is now seemingly spinning freely out of nowhere despite the gears still being in perfect shape

Hey guys, just as I thought I would be in the clear on needing to fix things on my daily Firebird, but now I've run into an issue with the driver's side headlight. Before anyone tells me to replace the nylon gears, I'll say that I did that 2 or 3 years ago. Swapped the nylon gears for CNC aluminum ones, put in all new bushings and all as well. Can't remember if the gaskets were replaced though. Anyhow, the headlights have been working perfectly fine since then, and they both worked when I parked the car last night, but this morning the driver's side was not working at all. The worm gear spins and sounds like it isn't touching the gear at all; no grinding noise or any signs of movement, happened out of nowhere. The headlight was stuck in the lowered position, so I had to go and unbolt the whole assembly from the car to remove the motor. I opened it up and everything still looks fine in there, no marks on the teeth or missing teeth on the worm gear or the shaft gear, and there weren't any metal shavings inside, so I don't believe that the gear is already worn out. The gasket, however, is in rough shape. Torn in the middle. After putting the motor back together, it was working as it should outside of the car. Worm gear was moving the shaft properly, felt smooth and all. After putting it back into the car, the worm gear was spinning freely of the shaft gear again. I was able to install it for now with the headlight in the up position, so at the very least I can still drive at night. Could this issue possibly be fixed just by putting a new gasket onto the gear cover, or should I start trying to look for a whole new motor assembly? I apologize for not getting pictures while I had the motor apart, I didn't want to get grease all over my phone. I also wonder if maybe it needs more grease? I'm not sure how much grease should be in there, but it seemed to only have a light coat on the gears. Sorry for the long post, I wanted to give as much info as possible. Thanks!
ALSO: I did want to mention that I did not take the gear apart to check the bushings because I didn't want to risk damaging anything while trying to remove the shaft. I don't think the bushings have anything to do with it since as I mentioned, the motor functioned properly prior to being reinstalled in the car (shaft would only spin when I turned the **** attached to the worm gear). I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow when I go back to take the motor out again, but I also wanted to get some of yall's opinions on what could possibly be adjusted or replaced to make the gears work again before I have to go back under the car and get more rust in my eyes from the lower headlight assembly bolts

Edit/ Update (10/12/20): It's been raining here in southern VA for the past few days, haven't been able to get outside to pull the motors off yet. Interestingly, my passenger side headlight got stuck in the up position at one point and I had to go turn the top **** to get it loose. After it was loosened, it worked fine again. Seems almost like theres too much pressure on the passenger side gear and not enough on the drivers side hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow so I can investigate