Below is a semi quick but permanent fix for a broken
or cracked headlight assembly adjuster. The problem is that the
adjuster screws are mounted in a plastic fitting that is going to
deteriorate and crack over time causing the headlight to go out of the
adjustment or not be able to be adjusted at all.
This little plastic
part is not something you can just order (that I'm aware of). You could possible
find a vendor who sells the whole assembly and pay big bucks for
something you don't really need. I chose to just fabricate a new
plastic piece. What I used was some scrape plastic
which I think is a type of PVC plastic. Basically it's flexible
yet tough. They use this type of plastic to machine parts from. Where you
can get it I'm not sure but almost any tough, flexible plastic should work.
The dimensions for the stock material needed to be about
1/2"x1/2" and about 1" long. As you can see below, I cut a few "L"
shaped pieces that roughly matched the dimensions of the original cracked
adjusters. The original adjusters were removed by drilling out
the pop-rivets and removed. Then two holes were drilled in each
piece. One for the pop rivet hole and the other for the
screw. For the adjuster screw, I drilled a holes slightly
smaller than the screw and just powered it into the hole creating the
threads (it's only plastic). Since the pop rivet hole was too
deep for a pop rivet I just used a small bolt and nut to re-attach it
to the headlamp assembly. It's not rocket science but hey, it
worked. In fact it worked so well I may just replace all of them
with this new design which would be more durable than the stock
adjusters. Each one took about 15 minutes to make using a coping
saw to cut the plastic material and a drill to drill out the
holes. The rest was just putting it back together. Below:
from left to right. Stock plastic, New adjusters (old below
them), adjuster screws, drill bits to drill out holes (1/8" for
small bolt, 3/16 (I think) to drill out for adjuster screw.
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