Headlight Questions

[Rob M.]

Okay, my wife said, "I just tapped the headlight and it did that."

So, I come to find that the LH headlight bucket on my '66 has about 1" of rotational play in it. I tried with a friend to rotate the lights to see if it was just a question of not fully closing them last time - nope. Also tried the manual wheel on the motor to take the play out - nope. I have pulled the motor and believe the issue maybe with the Y stop moving on the pivot shaft. With the motor out, the bucket doesn't rotate open all the way before the Y stop hits. Questions:

Does that sound likely?

Does the pivot shaft have splines?

How best to fix the problem?

Thanks in advance for all your help. (I love my wife . . . I love my wife.)

[Gerard F.]

Re: Headlight Questions

Rob,

The pivot shaft has splines, and it could be that the Y bracket has just slipped one spline.

However you should check the pivot shaft where it mounts to the bucket. Mine was cracked some years ago. I tried to epoxy the crack in the base of the shaft, it worked for a while and the looseness problem came back.

Finally put in a new pivot shaft and redid the pivot bushings/seals both sides of the bucket. Solved the problem

[Rob M.]

Re: Headlight Questions

Thanks Jerry,

I'll try and check the pivot shaft mounting area on the bucket - I hope it's not the case.

I guess I'll take advantage of the motor being out and get it rebuilt.

[Duke W.]

Re: Headlight Questions

I doubt if the motor needs to be rebuilt, but the gearbox probably needs help.

The worm (machined into the armature shaft) usually chews up the worm gear. I think you can buy a new one, but you can also rotate the worm gear 180 degrees to expose fresh teeth to the worm.

Clean and reassemble the gearbox(s) using a full synthetic NGLI #2 "general purpose" grease, which should be available at most parts stores.

The synthetic base oil will not evaporate as fast as a conventional base oil.

You don't have to pack the whole housing. Just make sure you apply a liberal amount on all the gear teeth, bearings, and thrust surfaces.

If the buckets rotate freely, they're okay, but if sticky the bucket bearings should be disassembled, cleaned and greased.

I would bet that none of the above has ever been done to your car, so if you do it now, you probably will not have to do it again.

Duke

[Gerard F.]

Re: Headlight Questions

Rob,

Here's what happened to my motor gears:



They had been rotated years back and were bunged up on both sides, so I got new ones from Paragon. I think the new ones are even a little better made.

As for the pivot shaft, here's what happened to mine:



The crack between the shaft and the bucket mounting plate, made the bucket somewhat loose in any position. I got a replacement from Paragon.

[Rob M.]

Re: Headlight Questions

Up-date - I've been working on it for a while. I definitely seems that the Y stop slipped a few grooves on the pivot shaft.

I believe when I had my car painted the buckets may have come out and when reinstalled the Y-stop retaining bolt wasn't tightened properly (it was pretty loose). So, I've been able to move it back pretty close with a wrench, screw driver, mirror, lights, and trickery that I couldn't duplicate. I'm a little worried about stripping the pivot shaft. It's close and now I'm trying to get it just right by adjusting the bolts at the ends of the Y stop. Almost there.