Bouncy headlight pod repair

[Alan Head]

On Motorway driving at night I had noticed my headlights flickering on roadsigns as I passed. They also looked like they were rather high and could be blinding other drivers.

I decided to investigate further and discovered I could lift the head lamp pods up and down 10mm or more.

I discovered that there are effectively 8 ball joints in the headlamp mechanism. At least some of them were very loose.

I repaired the problem as follows :-


1. Open the bonnet and locate the headlamp motor.

2. Turn the knob by hand to lift the pod manually



3. Remove the 6 screws holding the two headlights in place. Turning any of the others will upset your headlight alignment.

4. Remove the left hand pod pivot bolt using a suitable 5mm Allen Key.



5. Remove the right hand pod pivot bolt using a suitable 5mm Allen Key.

6. A 10mm Socket with extension bar can now be used to remove the main pivot bolt.


7. The headlamp pod can now be lifted away to reveal the pod bracket and relay lever.

8. Remove the left hand pivot bolt first as this will give better access to the right hand pivot bolt.



9. Now remove the right hand pivot bolt

10. The Relay lever can now be removed for further inspection.

11. Inspecting the lever revealed that the ball joints were fine but the pop rivets holding them on had worked loose.

12. The rivets were drilled out, ground off and replaced.

13. I now turned my attention to the balljoints inside the pod itself. The pop rivets were also loose but rather than remove them I decided to tighten them using a small G clamp.

14. This made them slop free once more.

The headlamp pod was reassembled and is now slop free. The only flexing in the system is now the glass fibre pod itself.

Next job - new delrin inserts in headlamp motor



Alan Head

[John_W]

Alan,
Nice tip. I must try it.

From the colour and general pristine state of your car, is that M100 TWO? Did you buy it from John?
John

[epipete]

Excellent post - now added to my archive for future reference

I suggest that you add this to the Wiki

Pete

[Rambo]

From the colour and general pristine state of your car, is that M100 TWO? Did you buy it from John?

John

Well guessed John

[Rambo]

Good write up Alan. Hopefully you, or a moderator, will be able to include the instructions on the LEC Wiki as Pete has already suggested

Did you also sort out that headlight that was flickering up and down (when stationary) when we last saw it at Bo'ness ? Was it the headlight pod delay module by any chance ??

[GeoffSmith]

Good write up Alan.

Hopefully you, or a moderator, will be able to include the instructions on the LEC Wiki as Pete has already suggested

Anyone (even you my little furry Scottish friend with dial up) can make a contribution to the Wiki....

[Simon_P]

Great! Thanks for this.

[Fetnas]

A great post, just a pity it won't apply to my car, I'm not looking forward to teh day I have to work on the opera glass style headlights on my early elan. There are at least twice the number of pivots in there and an extra set of push rods, butI do love the querky odd ball nature of these lights.

[Alan Head]

Thanks for all the positive comments guys.

Good write up Alan. Hopefully you, or a moderator, will be able to include the instructions on the LEC Wiki as Pete has already suggested

I am happy for a moderator to place the details on the Wiki.

I may get around to adding it myself if I can get access rights to the wiki.

Did you also sort out that headlight that was flickering up and down (when stationary) when we last saw it at Bo'ness ? Was it the headlight pod delay module by any chance ??

That was a strange one. I think we witnessed the Delron drive inserts breaking up just at that instant. It has never done it since. I did notice though that the motor now runs on for several seconds after the pod was raised. And then again for several seconds when the pod was dropped.

I currently have the headlamp motor stripped. When I removed the drive gear I was greeted with a pile of plastic granules where the drive inserts should have been. Unfortunately SJ Sportcars were out of stock of the repair kit. Steve has assured may that it will be despatched on Monday. I'll let you know how it goes when the bits arrive.


Alan

[Alan Head]

I currently have the headlamp motor stripped. When I removed the drive gear I was greeted with a pile of plastic granules where the drive inserts should have been. Unfortunately SJ Sportcars were out of stock of the repair kit. Steve has assured may that it will be despatched on Monday. I'll let you know how it goes when the bits arrive.


Alan

Finally got the headlamp motor repair kit. Headlights now working as they should be.


Alan