DB6 Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Any tips ? I Know there are the old "shine on a garage door with cardboard markers" fix, or some shops (and not that many any more evidently, in this area anyways) have the pro alignment tool; but... does anybody have a method to get a reasonable balance at home? Thanks DB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 DB, On most cars, I do the common "find a level surface with a wall, pull the car close to the wall and mark where the headlights shine, back the car up a ways and aim the headlights to the mark" procedure. With the Seven I thought I'd try something a little different to see if it'd work. First I parked the car on a level surface and took the headlight bulbs and trim rings off. I can't remember if I had the nose cone off at the time, but depending on headlight height you might have to remove it. Then I leveled off each headlight bucket in the vertical plane by putting a level (I used my camber gauge) up against the face of the bucket. I then took my 4 ft construction level to use as a straightedge and laid it across from headlight bucket to bucket and adjusted the left-to-right adjustment to get the straightedge flush with both headlight buckets. Please note that this will only work if the headlight bucket face is a consistent dimension from where the bulb mounts. And you should probably find a volunteer to sit in the drivers seat when you do the vertical adjustment. I did this when I first put my car back together and it seems like it worked pretty well because I haven't felt the need to fine tune it. YMMV Bruce :7drive: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Daniel Stern has a detailed writeup on the procedure in the tech section of his site. -John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjslutz Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 DB By far the best I have found is to find the long "DARK" straight road W/O traffic. I then cover one upheadlight and adjust the other, and then swap to the other side. This gave me the best results. Have the car loaded as you will be loaded most of the time. This even is better if you have a second person adjust as you talk the person through it. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB6 Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 Daniel Stern has a detailed writeup on the procedure in the tech section of his site. -John Lol, that is a lot of work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB6 Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 DB By far the best I have found is to find the long "DARK" straight road W/O traffic. I then cover one upheadlight and adjust the other, and then swap to the other side. This gave me the best results. Have the car loaded as you will be loaded most of the time. This even is better if you have a second person adjust as you talk the person through it. Gary Thanks Gary ( et al) , Seems like the best way so far without having a beam reading machine. I wonder why these machines are not more common. Thanks everyone for the input, to what I think is something everyone should be more aware of, there is nothing worse than badly positioned lights both for the driver and oncoming vehicles. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjslutz Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 DB, It isn’t as bad as it sounds, but has the best results. As different bulb assemblies have different light patterns, I have found marking a wall or door will not to give the best driving results. The use of a towel draped over each light as you adjust the other, makes the illuminated area from each light easy to see. I try to run as white of light as possible, with the best high wattage bulbs I can find, “if I’m running a dual bulb assembly”. With good lenses optics that has a defined cut of area it is possible to adjust the lights as not to be a hazard to others, if not stay with lower wattage. If you drive in areas of traffic all of the time, I would stay away from the high wattage bulbs. I do too much driving in areas where I need all the light I can get for the speed. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondo Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Just dont drive at night:jester: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB6 Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 Just dont drive at night:jester: Not just at night but often needed in the daytime here, plus I drive the PCH and you need all the light you can get, not too many street lamps out here,lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian7 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Just dont drive at night:jester: my car's black and two feet tall... drive at night? I don't think so :ack: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB6 Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 my car's black and two feet tall... drive at night? I don't think so :ack: I drive at night all the time, fun actually, and cold,lol. But always fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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