|
|
|
|
| Author |
|
|
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Meridian, ID USA
Posts: 39
|
Headlights slightly uneven on open/close
Okay, maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I can't seem to find any other postings that are close to describing the issue I'm seeing.
So I have recently noticed that my pop-up headlight buckets are uneven. They've probably been that way since I got the car, but my inner perfectionist took until this weekend to latch on to the issue. Not *too* much, but one bucket is always about 3/16" higher than the other. As a result, when the headlights are up, one side goes forward and the rubber stopper pad at the bottom of the bucket is solidly against the bump stop. No play if you try to wiggle the light bucket up & down. The other light has about a 1/16" air gap between the rubber stopper pad and the bump stop, so that headlight has a little play if you wiggle the bucket. Probably enough play that somebody standing on the side of the road would see the beam bouncing up/down a degree or two if the road was bumpy. Now, I could fix the wiggle by adjusting the screw the rubber stop is attached to, so both headlight buckets are solid, but that's not the only problem... the one that buggers me is: when the lights are closed, one of them is nice & flush with the surrounding body panels, but the other is popped up just a little bit, maybe 1/4". Just enough to be noticeably "off" from where it should be. If I retract them so that headlight bucket is flush, then the other is sunk down too far. So my question is: has anybody else seen this, where one headlight is basically further along in the rotation cycle than the other, and as a result you can't get both of them to close flush at the same point in the headlight rotation? I've checked the linkage, everything is tight and there is no more play on one side than the other. The linkage bar itself doesn't appear to be twisted, and according to the records, there has never been any front-end body work done. Is it possible to re-index one of the headlight buckets relative to the linkage, or are their positions fixed?
__________________
'88 944 Turbo S |
||
08-29-2010, 10:39 PM
|
|
|
What would Darth Vader do
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Orange, California
Posts: 1,324
|
Everything up there is adjustable. I am going to tackle that myself in a couple of weeks
__________________
1983 944 (2002 to now) 3-924's (Sold) 1967-912 (Traded) NEVER put a used water pump in your car... |
||
|
08-29-2010, 11:17 PM
|
|
|
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Meridian, ID USA
Posts: 39
|
Good to know, thanks for the tip.
Is there a write-up anywhere of somebody else doing this, or is it more of a "dig in there and figure it out as you go" sort of thing?
__________________
'88 944 Turbo S |
||
|
08-30-2010, 12:13 PM
|
|
|
Under the car
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Ross, Ohio
Posts: 585
|
I think to adjust each light individually, you loosen the 6 mm bolts holding the linkage pedestals to the frame rail and slide them forward or rearward depending on what you want your adjustment to be.
|
||
|
08-31-2010, 10:20 AM
|
|
|
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Meridian, ID USA
Posts: 39
|
Just wanted to wrap up the thread and say thanks for the help.
Matthewb, as soon as I read your post I realized that was exactly it -- the linkage bolts next to the headlight motor had actually come loose about a week before I noticed the headlights being off, which explains when & why they became misaligned. (Which makes a lot more sense than me not noticing for 3+ years). I had just shrugged and re-torqued them w/o looking for any "downstream" effects. I did exactly what you describe, moving the linkage back & forth on the frame rail, until it was looking good as new. Thanks!
__________________
'88 944 Turbo S |
||
|
09-11-2010, 10:25 AM
|
|
