burden@cheers.DEC (Dave Burden - ZKO2-2/Q21 - 381-2559) (08/29/85)
When you replace a headlight you shouldn't have to touch the aligning stuff. That is usually one layer deeper into the mounting hardware. If you want to align your headlights the simplest way is to find a flat driveway with a wall or garage door at the end of it. You can measure the height of the headlights off the ground and then turn them on and see how high they shine off the ground on the wall or door. Without any manuals in front of me, as long as they don't get any higher you're pretty close, at least you've got a good chance of not blinding on coming traffic. You can also do side to side aiming at this time. Try aiming the right hand headlight down and to the right a bit to light up the side of the road. Not too much, just a bit. It might take a few tries, aiming, driving a bit to see how it works and more aiming but it should work. Another problem people might be overlooking is what happens to the headlight beams when you load up the car for a vacation or hauling spare engines across town at night. The headlights tend to point towards the tree tops. If you're lucky they'll go right over the tops of the oncoming cars but usually they do a good job of blinding everybody. On those occasions I do feel sorry for people coming my way. If I only had a Porsche 928, though, they have headlight adjusters from the driver's seat. Dave Burden decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-cheers!burden 603-881-2559 Nashua, NH 42 42' 48.8'' N 71 27' 23.7'' W