1938 66S Headlight Question

[Daves1940Buick56S]

Last Fall I found out that the vertical adjustment on the left headlight is non-functional. The beam just points up to signal the Space Station. So far no answer. I have been tied up getting the interior back together (dash and new glass) but that work is almost finished (about 6 months later than planned!).

 

So I will be looking at this soon as weather here intermittently permits. I went back and looked at Gary's posts on his '37, and what I could glean out of the Shop Manual illustrations and the Parts Manuals that I have, but I think I need more info to do this. I think what I need to do is to remove the sub-body so I can get access to the adjustment mechanism. I suspect maybe a stripped adjust screw or related issue (the vertical adjust screw turns to no effect, the horizontal adjust works well). Does anyone have any advice here? Will I end up having to remove the whole bucket assembly? It would also help if I had a nice exploded drawing of the bucket with all parts, haven't seen one so far and the Shop Manual drawing is too vague for what I need.

 

Thanks! Dave

[MCHinson]

You simply need to remove the front ring that hold the lens on, remove the lens, and then you can press in on the reflector and remove the three small clips that hold the reflector in. Then you can remove the inner assembly so you can work on it. The attached Torque Tube II issue should help you. The article on headlight restoration starts on page 18 of the issue (page 20 of the .pdf).

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MzpcTFdO42RsO6qJpuGIkT3aTo2h7fwk/view?usp=sharing

[Gary W]

Here's the "build" of my headlights:

 

 

[Daves1940Buick56S]

Thanks to you both! Gary I did look at your posts first since they are the "bible" of 37/38 rebuilds. But I was still unclear on how the how the sub-body worked with the adjusters. I will look at the Torque Tube article next. Probably won't get to this until after Xmas. I steel-wooled up the left door/window handles today, right side done and on. Putting the trim back on the garnish moldings tomorrow, hopefully reinstall by the weekend, reattach the rear view mirror and the clock, then the interior will be complete!

 

UPDATE: Yes, the Torque Tube article is very helpful. Should be enough for what I need.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Daves1940Buick56S (see edit history)