Friday old car fun- headlight aiming

[rocketraider]

A buddy has a 1977 LeSabre Estate Wagon that for a couple oddball reasons has been off the road the last few years. It's up and running again and while parked, as expected things deteriorated.

 

Two of its headlights were bad, one had moisture in it and another had cracked, so today's project was lighting repair. Ended up having to pull two of the headlight buckets to get the retainer rings off after 45 years of corrosion and rust.

 

While we were at it, decided to get out my Hoppy aimers and aim them properly. Let me tell you all four were off aim and there's no telling when if ever it had been done.

 

Here's a few pictures for yer entertainment.😎

 

Aimers set up on high beams:

 

Lows

 

Showing aimer adjusters and targets 

 

Showing the targets reflected in the aimer mirrors.  You adjust the headlight horizontal adjuster screw  so the yellow  lines align.

 

And the vertical aim. Adjust the vertical adjuster screw to center the bubble in the level.

 

He took it out tonight and says he's never been able to see this well at night in this car. Job well done!

 

I was lucky enough to find this aimer kit that came with all the adapters and instruction manual. Bought it at a Fall Carlisle, from a wife and son selling some of her late husband's garage equipment. I'd had a pair of loose aimer bodies for years but no way to attach them to the lights, so I jumped on this kit soon as I saw it.

 

 

[kgreen]

My first thought was how many rounds do those things hold.  Then on to see what would be available for headlight aimers for personal use once or ten times in my remaining life time.  I found these:

 

https://www.lujanusa.com/sniper/sniper.htm

 

The price for these ranged from $800 to $1,400 on various sites.  Headlight aiming is important, I recall dad set up a taped pattern on the back of the garage wall.  At the time, he had the good fortune, or lack or fortune thus few tools, of having a blank wall in the garage.  Glenn brings up a good point and a good method, but what do others of you use for headlight aiming?

[TAKerry]

Same 4 x 6 lights that are in my 77 T/A. I could really use those aimers for half a day, LOL. I dont drive at night and I know the lights are way off. I have a large flat area I could use to adjust and there are instructions in the body manual, just never got around to doing so. I also had a light when I got the car that was full of water? No visible cracks and couldnt shake it out, made me wonder how that much got into it. Wouldve made a nice fish bowel.

[rocketraider]

The flat wall works great if you have one that's not obstructed like most of our garage walls are!

 

kgreen and Kerry, search for "B4a Hoppy headlight aimer". There's several on ebay and other sites this morning in the $100-200 range and all appear complete. What you want is one that has all the headlight (8) and floor setup (2) adapters and the instruction booklet. The instructions show how to set up the aimers to account for floor slope, how to mount them on the lights and aim them, and how to periodically calibrate the aimers themselves.

 

The B4a kit has adapters for use on 7" and 5-3/4" round sealed beams and for both single and four-light rectangular sealed beams. The lady had several sets of euro-style lamp adapters too and they came with the kit.

 

A lot of inspection stations use the Lujan style rollaround aimer (if they use them🙄) but these Hoppys are what the factory used and were part of GM's "Dealer Essential Tools" for decades- wearing a GM or AC decal of course!

[Paul Dobbin]

I use the garage door at night.   It's all approximate, but keeps me from binding the oncoming traffic and enables me to see the lines on the road.

Try it at 15 feet back and 50 feet back. beyond that the 6 volt lights are only so the other cars know you are there.

[Frank DuVal]

And on quad headlamp vehicles, cover the inners to do the outers and vice versa (upper and lowers on some Fords, etc). Only adjust with high beams on.  Low beam will be adjusted just fine, as they are designed that way (filament mounts). 
 

I’ve even used large cardboard box section against another car in the yard if no blank walls were available and level from the car. 25 30 feet good distance. Look at hot spot not whole pattern. 

[plymouthcranbrook]

Another tool I never knew existed.

[rodneybeauchamp]

18 hours ago, Frank DuVal said:

And on quad headlamp vehicles, cover the inners to do the outers and vice versa (upper and lowers on some Fords, etc). Only adjust with high beams on.  Low beam will be adjusted just fine, as they are designed that way (filament mounts). 

Are you suggesting that aiming on four headlight vehicles always be done on hi-beam? If that is the case, I might redo mine. On all my cars I have to replace the sealed beams for ones that dip to the left for Australia right hand drive.

 

Headlight aim is always a concern for me and I do drive at night and early morning. Currently I use my garage wall but my driveway slopes downward once out past the door.

 

Can someone explain why the adjustment is done on high beam?

 

Thanks

Rodney 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

[hook]

19 hours ago, rocketraider said:

The flat wall works great if you have one that's not obstructed like most of our garage walls are!

 

kgreen and Kerry, search for "B4a Hoppy headlight aimer". There's several on ebay and other sites this morning in the $100-200 range and all appear complete. What you want is one that has all the headlight (8) and floor setup (2) adapters and the instruction booklet. The instructions show how to set up the aimers to account for floor slope, how to mount them on the lights and aim them, and how to periodically calibrate the aimers themselves.

 

The B4a kit has adapters for use on 7" and 5-3/4" round sealed beams and for both single and four-light rectangular sealed beams. The lady had several sets of euro-style lamp adapters too and they came with the kit.

 

A lot of inspection stations use the Lujan style rollaround aimer (if they use them🙄) but these Hoppys are what the factory used and were part of GM's "Dealer Essential Tools" for decades- wearing a GM or AC decal of course!

Youtube has a very good instructional video on how to set up and use the Hoppy aimer,

[Frank DuVal]

2 hours ago, rodneybeauchamp said:

 

Can someone explain why the adjustment is done on high beam?

I hinted at it. The high and low beam filaments in the same sealed beam or "pre-focused" lamp are made to a standard where the focal point of each beam are the same focal point relative to each other for EVERY bulb/lamp/sealed beam made. So, make the high beams go straight down the road and the low beams will not only be less wattage/lumens, but also LOWER and to the proper side (there are different sealed beams for right hand vs left hand countries I have been told) of the high beam hot spot. 

 

This is also why the "Hoppy" /AC Delco/ etc aimers work that do not even rely on the lamps being on.

 

Ah, you did confirm about the high/low sealed beams being a different part number than the US  left hand drive version. Excellent! I know on gray market cars here in the US (European standards) the lows went to the wrong side with the lens focal points (no sealed beams).

Edited September 4, 2022 by Frank DuVal (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

21 hours ago, rocketraider said:

The flat wall works great if you have one that's not obstructed like most of our garage walls are!

It hurts when I laugh. A friend had a "Free" bin/dumpster at his yard sale and I brought home two large folding closet mirrors to mount on the wall for checking lights. Right now they are leaning up obstructing wall space while I figure out a spot to clear for them.

 

Ever notice how people seem to pay more attention to the background of pictures than the subject matter? Kind of looks like my place. I have three wheels in a pyramid.

[TAKerry]

3 hours ago, rodneybeauchamp said:

Are you suggesting that aiming on four headlight vehicles always be done on hi-beam? If that is the case, I might redo mine. On all my cars I have to replace the sealed beams for ones that dip to the left for Australia right hand drive.

 

Headlight aim is always a concern for me and I do drive at night and early morning. Currently I use my garage wall but my driveway slopes downward once out past the door.

 

Can someone explain why the adjustment is done on high beam?

 

Thanks

Rodney 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

Years ago I was riding with my brother that just put new lights in his square body vw sedan. It was dark and a bit foggy.  One high beam was aimed directly at the tree line above, the other was aimed at a 45 deg angle to the side! Pays off to aim at least straight!

[rocketraider]

To me sealed beam headlight R&R was always pretty straightforward. Remove bezel, then remove retainer ring screws, then unplug and remove the lamp. Reverse procedure to install, maybe put a little white or dielectric grease on the plug terminals to retard corrosion. If the lamp was reasonably well aimed to start, and you didn't disturb the aiming screws, you were good.

 

But we all know folks whose repair philosophy is take every visible screw loose!

 

I'll admit I was scared those 45 yo nylon adjuster nuts were gonna give it up while I was trying to set the aim. Years ago one broke on me 76 Ninety Eight traveling down the highway which threw the LH high beam down and to the left. Since no one had that particular adjuster in stock, and they had to be ordered, I replaced them all.

[rocketraider]

There are several youtubes on this. ETCG seems to be the most detailed. There's one with a 65 Galaxie too, but I guess a Fairmont can qualify as "old stuff"!