kek@hoxna.UUCP ( K. E. Kepple) (08/28/85)
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< I, for one, am slightly afraid to replace a
< burned-out light for fear of misaligning it.
It's pretty hard to misalign your lights when replacing a burned-out
bulb unless you change them with a hammer! The bulbs fit into a cup-shaped
socket and are held in place by the rim (called a bezel). It is this socket
that determines the alignment. The alignment is (usually) determined by two
socket screws; one on the X axis (horizontal) and one on the Y axis (vertical).
These screws normally have a surrounding spring or other mechanism that
prevents them from moving without the application of a reasonable amount of
elbow-grease applied via a screw-driver. Routine bulb changing only
involves removing the rim, pulling the bulb forward enough to unplug the
electrical connection, and installation of the new bulb in the reverse
manner. It does not affect the alignment and is a trivial task. Good
drivers should carry a spare bulb and know how to change it.
Remember that these things were designed to be maintained by gas-station
gorillas with third-grade educations!
I have aligned my lights by first making a "gross" adjustment by shining
them on the garage door (from about 10-15 feet away) to set the proper
height and to line them up with the car. On high beam, the light should
point relatively straight forward along the wheel paths. For low beams,
the left lamp should be aimed toward the center of the paths and the
right lamp should track toward the shoulder or the road. After this, I
fine tune the alignment by positioning the car on the road (I live on a
very quiet road and can do this without getting run over) and checking
that they provide adequate coverage and are not aimed at oncoming
traffic. I've never had a problem with inspection following my own light
alignments (although that may not say much for NJ DMV. :-)
Most reputable garages have the equipment to readily check the aligmnent
for you.
Ken Kepple
hoxna!kek datakit: ho/bedrock/fred!kek
AT&T-Bell Labs - Holmdel NJ 07733 201-949-6525 Cornet 8-233-6525
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