How to fix the head light adjuster (if you are lucky)

I made the fatal mistake of incorrectly adjusting the headlight beam direction to the point the adjuster no longer functioned. It is quite possible that you might have wound the adjusting screw off of the adjuster, or the ball joint on the end of the adjusting rod has popped off of the socket inside the lamp. If you are lucky you can retrieve the situation, if you are unlucky like me then you will have to replace the headlight.

To remove the headlight you have to firstly remove the side lights, and then after that remove the front grill. Now you are ready to remove the headlights.

With the headlights removed you will be able to notice if there is something rattling around inside the headlight. If there is (as there was with mine) then it is very likely that the ball joint receptor has become detacted and is now rolling around inside. :-(

The adjusters are shown in the picture below. Note this is for a model with a motor driven tilt/level adjuster.

rear of headlight

If the problem is on the tilt, then one of the problems may be that the screw drive has wound too far inwards and is no longer engaging upon the manual adjuster. The manual adjuster can be removed by undoing screws 1 and 2.

Removing the manual adjuster

With the adjuster removed you can manually turn the screw anticlockwise so it will then engage upon the adjuster cog.

Adjuster removed

If this is not the problem then you will have to remove the motor by taking out the three screws 3,4 and 5.

Removing motor

With the motor assembly removed you can see the push-rod and ball at the end. This locates in a receptor in the headlight.

Motor removed

Good luck with the reassembly, because as mentioned at the start of this, my headlights did not have anywhere for the ball to locate. Well it did but it was rattling around inside the headlight. The next step for me was to install a set of Morette headlight replacements.


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Page created and last updated 26th May 2003
Copyright © 2003 Steve Breen
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