Headlight Buckets - Adjustment Knobs (Am I doing it correct?

[rapandi]

Hi Team,

 

Sometime in 2017 I bought a pair of headlight buckets from the States. (Thank you to @71bmr02 for selling me these). I cleaned them up, got them zinc plated, reassembled them back together and spent an eternity trying to work out which is the right and left one (haha). Today I test fitted them on the car for the first time. They fit well. I am just waiting to get a pair of semi-sealed H4 headlights to fit to them.

 

My Questions - You know the two black knobs present at the back of the headlight buckets - My understanding is those are there to help adjust the lights. I am fairly confident I have assembled them correctly. However when I twist them knobs I really don't see any movement i.e. I don't see the buckets changing any angles. Mind you I was holding the bucket in my hand when playing with the knobs. Is the change/adjustment subtle? Should I be able to visually see the headlight buckets change angles when I turn the adjusters?

 

If someone could shed some light please (see what I did there  ) that would be super helpful. I really don't want to fit these to the car with the headlights installed just to find that I need to pull it all out and rebuild them cause I messed something up.

 

Regards

 

Raj

 

 

 

 

[Guy Cocquyt]

Hey Raj nice work on the lights. The issue may be those small white rectangular nylon caged nuts. The might be stripped, mine were so I bought a nylon cutting board at a kitchen shop and fabricated new ones using a fine tooth saw, a drill bit and some sand paper for final fit. They worked like a charm. I also saw a post in the last week where another member found new metal replacements for these nylon nuts.

[rapandi]

Just now, Guy Cocquyt said:

Hey Raj nice work on the lights. The issue may be those small white rectangular nylon caged nuts. The might be stripped, mine were so I bought a nylon cutting board at a kitchen shop and fabricated new ones using a fine tooth saw, a drill bit and some sand paper for final fit. They worked like a charm. I also saw a post in the last week where another member found new metal replacements for these nylon nuts.

Hi Guy

 

i think you are right regarding them white nylon caged nuts. I am going to try the nylon cutting board method. 

[Conserv]

Besides the nylon cutting board method -- and I seem to recall that others (e.g., Jim G.?) had duplicated the originals with various materials -- @Slavs, in his recent thread on headlight bucket restoration, showed us an IE better-than-plastic replacement for the caged nuts, complete with photograph:

 

 

Despite how much I like "original", I am going to try a pair of these IE nuts -- I spent two hours last summer fiddling with one -- maybe it's two -- of these plastic nuts, on my freshly re-done buckets, that was obviously stripped.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Sorry, Guy, I just saw that you had already mentioned the metal replacements from IE!

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Conserv

[Mike Self]

And make sure you get the two buckets installed on the correct sides.  Otherwise you'll have a cross-eyed look from them when illuminated.  Here's a quote from a column I did years ago on telling lefts from rights:

• Off the car, telling a left from a right headlight bucket is like sexing day-old chickens—it’s difficult but not impossible--if you know what to look for.  The two headlight adjusters’ positions don’t help: on both buckets they’re on the car’s right. Close inspection revealed a slight difference.  Look at the 3 o’clock adjuster—next to it is a bracket that’s part of the mounting plate (the part with four studs) and is spot welded to the inner bucket.  On right side buckets the bracket’s end is flush with the inner bucket; on lefts, it’s about a half inch short of being flush.  Or, save yourself some grief by marking ’em before removing! 

And...you might check realoem or a parts book to make sure there aren't different buckets for RHD cars.  

 

mike

[Conserv]

1 hour ago, mike said:

 

 

... And...you might check realoem or a parts book to make sure there aren't different buckets for RHD cars...

 

Excellent point, Mike!

 

And I can’t imagine any RHD market desiring the sealed beams that more-or-less forced BMW to create the U.S.-style headlight buckets. I believe both front buckets have adjusters at the top and at the right side. Was that design dictated by the LHD preference to bias the lights toward the right, to reduce glare for oncoming traffic?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Conserv

[HBChris]

I've never seen a nut on the adjusting screw before

[02Les]

5 hours ago, Conserv said:

Excellent point, Mike!

 

And I can’t imagine any RHD market desiring the sealed beams that more-or-less forced BMW to create the U.S.-style headlight buckets. I believe both front buckets have adjusters at the top and at the right side. Was that design dictated by the LHD preference to bias the lights toward the right, to reduce glare for oncoming traffic?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

 

For RHD (Euro) the glass and reflector were different.

The triangular-ish section on the glass changed sides and that was to prevent glare to oncoming motorists when the lights were on dip (AFAIK).

Edited April 10, 2020 by 02Les

[visionaut]

Ding-ding! Chris spotted Waldo. You’re not going to get any adjustability with that nut being In between there on the knob screw...

 

Dirty pic of my 76 buckets with H4s, but note the wide-opening for headlight aiming adjustment.

 

Tom-too

[rapandi]

4 hours ago, HBChris said:

I've never seen a nut on the adjusting screw before

 

42 minutes ago, visionaut said:

Ding-ding! Chris spotted Waldo. You’re not going to get any adjustability with that nut being In between there on the knob screw...

 

Dirty pic of my 76 buckets with H4s, but note the wide-opening for headlight aiming adjustment.

 

Tom-too

Thanks for the picture @visionaut. I can clearly see the angle on the buckets. Makes sense.

 

That nut is essential. In the original set up the there was a 'nut type' washer.  It would hold the top part of the assembly on the bolt. See blue arrow below. Trouble is when I dismantled these buckets I couldn't salvage those "nuts". So instead I replaced it with a nyloc-nut instead. You can see a picture from IE below off their website where they use a nut too in their setup.

 

 

[rapandi]

7 hours ago, Conserv said:

Excellent point, Mike!

 

And I can’t imagine any RHD market desiring the sealed beams that more-or-less forced BMW to create the U.S.-style headlight buckets. I believe both front buckets have adjusters at the top and at the right side. Was that design dictated by the LHD preference to bias the lights toward the right, to reduce glare for oncoming traffic?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

The RHD cars came with the Euro style buckets. Pic below. I do have the original headlight buckets which came with the car. They are much deeper in size and they never came with sealed units in them. They came with a separable reflector (red arrow) which can take a H4 bulb. The reflectors themselves have adjustment knobs on them. 

 

The trouble with these lights is that the reflectors are corroded after several decades of driving. They lose their reflective property. They are not chrome plated but are silver lined. Finding someone who can re-silver these is a bit of a mission in Australia. However even if you did find someone who can do it, the cost of re-silvering them is exuberant (in the hundreds just for one headlight). Even if you did manage to get them re-silvered the light output from them is mediocre at best.

 

Most people I know here just put up with the poor lights. Picture below showing a re-silvered reflector.  

 

The US buckets mount straight on to the the RHD cars no problem and you can get semi sealed units (for RHD cars) which can be attached to these buckets. The US buckets provide a much larger choice of headlights that can be used on the RHD cars with much better light output. 

 

 

[rapandi]

9 hours ago, Conserv said:

Despite how much I like "original", I am going to try a pair of these IE nuts -- I spent two hours last summer fiddling with one -- maybe it's two -- of these plastic nuts, on my freshly re-done buckets, that was obviously stripped.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

Actually this sounds like a pretty good option. I might try and see if I can fabricate something decent, similar to what IE sell. Thanks for the tip.

[visionaut]

I guess in that IE design it’s needed? And you snug it up at the end to keep the knob positioned in/against it’s rounded holder.
 

Mine has a flat knob-holder with a different attached positioner. As far as I know, mine is original (but I’ve been proven wrong before when I assume some of my few original bits ain’t).

Edited April 11, 2020 by visionaut

[Conserv]

2 hours ago, 02Les said:

 

For RHD (Euro) the glass and reflector were different.

The triangular-ish section on the glass changed sides and that was to prevent glare to oncoming motorists when the lights were on dip (AFAIK).

Les,

 

I understand and am familiar with the differences in RHD and LHD lenses. But was the U.S.-style headlight bucket (below) used in any market other than the U.S.? If the answer is “Yes”, were any of those RHD markets? If the answer is “No”, is it possible the U.S.-style bucket was designed with a built-in bias to the right?

 

Thanks and best regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Conserv

[Conserv]

55 minutes ago, visionaut said:

I guess in that IE design it’s needed? And you snug it up at the end to keep the knob positioned in/against it’s rounded holder.
 

Mine has a flat knob-holder with a different attached positioner. As far as I know, mine is original (but I’ve been proven wrong before when I assume some of my few original bits ain’t).

Tom,

 

Below is what I believe is the original hardware used on all U.S. headlight buckets. Although it doesn’t show clearly in my photos, the “snugging” of the threaded screw to the plastic thumbwheel is accomplished by a tight “eared” washer, in lieu of a nut. There must have been a darned good reason for this because those “eared” washers are a pain in the a** to remove and install — hey, maybe that’s intentional!
 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Sorry, Rapandi, I arrived late to the party and obviously didn’t read all the postings since my last visit! ? You’ve revealed all this already.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Conserv