The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Headlights Only Work on High Beam

Word

I'm hep to the jive

This thread has derailed!

Whachoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

This thread was derailed when I posed the first question!

However in the word's of the immortal Bard, All's well that ends well.






I bet you all can't wait for me to get back fixing the horn.

Wow! 13 pages of comments!! I use my lights only on high beam so this wouldn't affect me. I've adjusted them so they don't cause oncoming traffic to flash their lights at me. With my nighttime max speed (~40 MPH) in town, they are just fine for me.

I think that's why no attempt to get the lights working properly was ever made in at least 15-17 years.

My friend never drove the truck at night (or very much at all, actually) in all the time he's owned it.

Whoever had it before him wired things up with a million cheap connectors and bad splices and then hooked up the dimmer switch wires wrong.

As long as the headlights came on bright, I guess that was good enough for him.

I'll find out tomorrow morning how badly these lights are aimed. They're probably shining all over Hell's half acre. At least people will be able to see me.

I have an early 1970s headlight aiming kit that I've never used. It's got suction cups, mirrors, prisms, the whole shebang. I guess it's time I learn how to use it.

I never heard of a headlight aiming kit. I used to park about 30 feet away from the garage door in the dark and aim them that way. Road test, repeat if necessary.

The old round headlight bulbs have 3 nubs on them that a headlight aiming gizmo aligns with, then you adjust to make the level bulb centered and the crosshairs lined up. I don't even think you need to turn the lights on. I've never played with one of them but have seen them in a shop many years ago.
But the wall aiming method works too. The service manual has that information.

The whole procedure is in the old shop manual/maintenance manuals on line.

Yes, I saw that in the manual. Unfortunately for me it requires a level surface and a certain distance from a wall. I can't get all three together.

Here's the kit. it has adapters for single a dual headlight systems both round and square. A friend of mine gave it to me a couple years ago.

The spot the truck sits on just needs to be level. You can use a laser level to project a line from the center of the headlights to the wall the proper distance away. Then adjust the pattern to that spot.
I've driven over to a parking lot and used the building wall to line up headlights. It probably wasn't exactly level, but close enough. That was before I had a laser level. I've since discovered that my laser level doesn't project a level beam. Made of Chinesium.

My father put marks on his garage door where the headlights should be aimed... it worked pretty well, for his pickup.. maybe not so good with his vette.

Thanks to bart amos, I was able to drive to work before the sun came up instead of waiting until 8:00am to leave the house.

You did all the work. Good job.

Here's Ol' Roy at the loading dock and the sun coming up in Buckhead.

One other point, a fog light can help.