'84 Carrera H4 Headlight Lense replacement

[Obertreis]

I broke a H4 headlight lense and need some advice regarding
access to the chrome retaining ring.
Underneath the painted finish ring, the chrome retaining ring is held by two flathead screws (M3 x 3"lg) placed at 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock on the ring. The screws turn freely in both directions, but neither tighten nor disengage.
Obviously, I'm misssing something here and would appreciate any advice...
Lou

[Buckterrier]

The screw that removes both the painted and chrome rings is ay 6 o'clock the other two are for aiming I believe.

[Javers]

Yep the bottom screw is the only thing that holds both rings in place, however if i remember correctly the chrome ring "snaps" over the bodywork and its a complete sod to get off, needs lots of pressure and patients to work it free.

Jon

[Obertreis]

Assuming that these 1 o'clock & 7 o'clock screws are for headlight adjustment only, how is the lense for an H4 quartz halogen light accessed and replaced?

[Buckterrier]

Mine had 23 years of sand blasting on them so I replaced them both last year. And of course my luck a rock went the right side one this past summer. I just recieved a 2nd replacement yesterday.
This is from memory;
Remove the bottom screw, it's like double threaded or something to hold both rings on. The whole unit will come out. Unplug the connector. There is a gasket, actually two, one for the fender to ring point & the other inside the unit to protect it against moisture. Then what holds the lense in are pieces of angled wire that fit.
You know what? better yet, if you can wait til tomorrow when I replace the right side again I'll take pictures and have a better write up on it.
One word of caution if you decide to do it now...... when it is ready to put back togeher and the rings are ready too re-install that bottom screw has to go in at the correct angle and is a bit of a PITA. If it isn't it'll strip out easily.

[spuggy]

All good advice above.

Once you remove the screw at 6 o'clock, you need to pull the bottom of the headlight unit out (the tangs it clips over are at 12 o'clock on the fender), but if it hasn't been removed for a long time, it can feel like it's stuck to the rubber gasket.

Don't be tempted to lever it with anything, just try to force your fiingertips into the rubber gasket, move it around - it'll pop loose.

On the later H4's, the brackets for the adjusting screws are just pushed into the rubber bushing in the back of the reflector and a little sideways force will pop them right out - you don't need to wind the adjuster screws all the way out to get the reflector out of the mounting (I've done this job twice, and only realised this the last time....)

Remove the little bits of spring wire, and the lense and refector just pop out. When you line it all up again, line up the vertical flutes in the glass with the screw hole at the bottom at 6 o'clock.

Don't sweat the exact placement/spacing of the springs too much - just spread them around evenly and don't obscure the screw holes, and it should hold the lense nice and tight.

If you seat the rubber gasket evenly around the lense and in the rim that mounts to the fender, the adjustment shouldn't even be disturbed when you re-assemble and push the adjusters back in...

This is a good time to make sure you have the rubber drain tubes in the correct place in the bottom of the fender - they're there to drain any water that gets forced in the front, whilst making it difficult for water to get thrown into the headlight compartment from the road.

Also a good time to wire up those Euro city lights into the side marker circuit, if you like that look. If you don't have the little bulb holders in your headlamp, I noticed recently that they're exactly the same as the bulb holders in the US front side marker lamps.

Oddly, neither Pelican nor PET seem to show the front markers or the bulb holder....

[javadog]

In addition, those little wire springs come in two slightly different shapes. You have some of each in each headlight. They are placed in different areas, so you may want to take a careful look first, before popping them all out in a pile.

JR

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by javadog

In addition, those little wire springs come in two slightly different shapes.

Y'know, that was definately true for the old used ones I bought.

But they wouldn't pass inspection because they had shot reflectors, and after messing about for a while (buying ones from Ebay painted with rattle-can silver paint!), I just bought a pair of new H4's from our host.

Whilst swapping the LHT lenses over, I noticed that the new ones seemed to only have the one spring type....

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by javadog

In addition, those little wire springs come in two slightly different shapes. You have some of each in each headlight. They are placed in different areas, so you may want to take a careful look first, before popping them all out in a pile.

JR

I'll find out this afternoon, but I think mine are all the same also.

[Buckterrier]

Installed the new lense this afternoon. All the wire springs, 13, were the same shape.
A few words of wisdom, it all came back this afternoon, lol...
1). The adjusting screws don't need to come all the way out too remove the lense. I did this the last time and is a pain to get back in.
2). Be careful installing the springs. If one 'slips' while under tension it flys!! (don't ask how I know).
3). While putting the assembly back in, the top of the chrome ring has to 'seat' under the little tab on the fender then sorta snaps in on the bottom. This also can be a bit of a pain.
4). Use new seals.

Good luck and if you need a few pics I did take some.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by Buckterrier

The adjusting screws don't need to come all the way out too remove the lense.

The adjusting screws don't need to move at all.

The bracket that joins the adjusting screw to the headlight reflector will pop sideways out of the rubber tube in the reflector with a tiny amount of force and you don't need to disturb the aiming adjustment at all.

I discovered this by accident when one fell out as I was re-assembling the headlight. The next headlight was considerably quicker to do...

Re-assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

[JFairman]

If you completely take them apart to paint them properly, then you can use those threaded bosch spark plug connector tips you have to remove anyway and use them in place of the ridiculous crimped on thing they used as nuts since it's the same thread as the long chrome plated brass screws, and when installing the spring clips leave about a 2" space at the top so the ring can slide completely over the tab at the top of the headlight bucket and hold on securly.

Also the rings are brass and can get little convex dents from the ends of those spring clips if you're not careful.

When installing the special screw that holds everything on at the bottom, that screw has to be angled downwards more than some people may think so it pulls the headlight downwards and hooks it onto the tab at the top while pulling it back against the rubber seal and headlight bucket.
It's easiest to use a very long screwdriver so the shank of the screwdriver is right against the bumper or headlight washer nozzle and the handle of the screwdriver and your hand are out in front of the bumper. That just makes it alot easier to get the low angle of that screw.

Body shop places and mechanics that are not familiar with this seem to always angle that screw in too high and cross thread the threads making it so the lights don't hook on top correctly and end up sitting about 1/16" high in relation to the line of the fender.
If that has happened you can bend the tab forward a little so the screw angles downward again in the cross threaded holes.