How to aim headlamps on a 67 riv

[Les67riv]

Does any one have any advice on aiming replacement halogen headlamps on a 67? My lights seemed aimed too low.

Thanks, Les

[RivNut]

Here's how I was taught to do it for a 4 lamp round light system. . Place your car about 25 feet from a level vertical surface that's on the same plane as your car is sitting. Draw a horizontal chalk line on the vertical surface the same distance from the ground as the center of the bulbs. Look through the rear glass and the front glass and find where the center lne of your car, if extended, would intersect the line. Mark it on the line. Measure how far from the center of your car it is to the center of each bulb. Mark each of those measurements on the line. You have to aim each bulb separately to its corresponding mark. Take the trim rings off the lights but leave the lamp held in place by the retaining ring.

With the brights on (all four bulbs are lit) drape something over the brights (inside lamps, the ones with only two terminals) Switch your attention to the two adjustment screws on the headlight retaining ring of the low beam (outside lamp, three terminals) either loosen or tighten the one on the side to make the bulb move left or right - which ever you do to the side with the screw, a spring does the opposite action to the other side of the bulb; you back off the screw, the spring shortens - you tighten the screw the spring stretches. The adjustment screw on the top or bottom moves the bulb up and down. Center each bright element of the low bulb on its mark.

Now take the drape off the high beams, cover the low beams, and repeat the process. Once all four high beams shoot out parallel to the ground and hit their mark, the lights are adjusted. When you switch to the low beams, the high (inside) bulbs will turn off and the power now goes to the low element in the (outside) lamp. The manufacturers placement of the bulb within the parabola of the lamp itself will cause the low beams to shine down and to the right. They should go down about 3" at 25' and to the right enough to light up the white line on the edge of the road.

With your high beams on, the lights (all 4) shine straight ahead; with your low beams on, the lights shine down and to the right lighting up the side of the road. This takes your eyes from looking straight ahead into the lights of the oncoming car. I have used this procedure for standard lamps, halogen lamps, and xenon lamps and it has always been successful for me. The better the lamp, the farther down the road it shines.

Good luck,

Ed

[Les67riv]

Ed, Thank you very much. I tried aiming them last night by going back and forth behind the wheel, and checking to see the results. This is significantly more systematic.

All good wishes, Les

ROA 6726

1967 Riviera - Owned by father since Sept. 1966

[Guest Riviera66]

I see you both emailed me directly as well as on this forum... so I'll respond to your email on forum also.

The factory's method of aiming them was a device that clamped on the bulbs... that's what those 3 points on the bulbs are for.... to mount the aimer. I purchased on of these on eBay 2 years ago and it's proven it's worth... I've brought it to our local ROA events and helped other members align their Rivs too... so our SoCal Rivieras are all shining brightly without blinding. Most garages don't even know what this unit is for now... just a relic of old cars since cars made in the late 80s and newer are no longer required to have the mount points on them.

The method suggested in the previous post is suitable.. what you're doing is setting the headlights so they're 'almost' level and that they're parallel to one another when the car is on level ground and properly weighted. So you need to ensure your gas tank is full... you want it so you're never shining up in the air... even with weight in the back of the car.

The following procedure is a succinct method of doing it.

http://www.coolbulbs.com/HID-VISUAL-HEADLIGHT-AIMING-PROCEDURE.pdf

Darwin Falk

1966-1970 ROA Technical Advisor

[NTX5467]

In general, the light beam should have a specified "drop" from horizontal orientation, with a similar "angle" to the passenger side of the vehicle too. Seems like it's something like 1/4" per 20 feet?

The clamp-on aimers, I believe, will generally work on a lamp with the three aiming tabs on them (as the original T-3 lights had . . . and many replacement lamps of recent vintage do not, having a smooooooth curve to their lens). In using a roll-around aimer (as many dealeships used to have), getting the aimer on the same level plane as the light was highly important for the horizontal aiming process.

Here's my "shadetree" method of aiming (as there usually are not many completely flat stretches of concrete to use the "aiming wall" approach around where I am).

As you drive down the road after dark, hopefully on a reasonably deserted roadway where you can use the high beams and not worry about oncoming traffic, use the high beams and look for the light patterns and how they "hit" the road surface in front of the car. Pay attention to if they are angling to the right, left, or are "straight ahead". You DO NOT want the "hot spot" of the beam to be angling to the left (in the USA, at least) and into oncoming traffic. With some practice of watching this, you can see that the major left side of the hot spot should not be more "leftward" than the center stripe of your lane when "high beams" are used. For high beams, you'll want it to be pretty much "straight ahead", but possibly with a slight right-ward angle for good measure.

For the vertical adjustment, on high beams, as you drive over a longer bridge or overpass, you can see where the hot spot patterns on the side rails of the bridge. Hopefully, it should be "flat" and the main beam hot spot should parallel it. You can do the same thing with a brick wall, too. Having it aim down just a hair, for good measure, is good, too.

Aiming two-lamp and four-lamp systems are a little different. If you aim on "high beam", then the low beams will be lower and automatically go more to the right when the low beams are used. If where you drive is not conducive to high beam use, then you might decrease the right-ward angle of the low beams, but not so much that it makes the high beams angle off too far to the left (and be more ineffective in "down the road" illumination).

With the older style beam patterns, the hot spot is more fuzzy and less-defined. Many later versions of sealed beam headlights and Euro "E" code beam patterns, there will be a much sharper "top" beam cut-off and less "scatter". In comparison to the earlier lights, the more recent beam patterns can be aimed "higher" than what the earlier and older-style beam patterns would allow--watch where the hot spots are and how they relate to the vehicle.

A key operational orientation is to have the lights aimed as high as possible without putting too much light into the eyes of oncoming drivers and the rear view mirrors of drivers in front of you on low beams. The lateral adjustment to the right side helps with this too. If oncoming drivers blink their lights at you (with your lights on low beam) or drivers in front of you get out of you way, then you probably need to do some additional tweaking of the adjustment.

Once you see how all of this works on a dark roadway, seeing the reflectors on the pavement and reflectorized pavement markings, it makes sense and can also be safer for you to drive after dark.

These comments are from my own use and experiences over the years, but your use of them is at YOUR own risk and possible perril.

NTX5467

[RivNut]

Or if you want to drive with all four lamps on bright all the time, here's what the Kool Kats from yesteryear did.

Install some headlight shileds. They limit the upper range of the brights.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HALF-MOON...sspagenameZWDVW