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Triumph TR6 - Aiming Headlights

My headlights need to be aimed properly, is there an easy way I can do this myself or is this something that should be done by a specialist?

Thanks in advance,
Joe
J. Caruana

Joe,
this is how my grade 11 auto mechanics teacher showed me and I've done it this way for 27 years and never had any complaints yet.
Measure from the ground to the center of either head light,record it. Measure between the head lights center to center, record it.
At night time pull the car 20 ft. out from the garage
door and turn on the lights. Adjust the head lights
so that they shine at the same height up from the ground as you measured and the same distance between them, that is straight forward and parallel.
Christopher Trace

Thanks Christopher sounds easy enough I'll try it tonight.

Joe
J. Caruana

JC - I would make a call to your licensing /vehicle examination centre and check their requirements.

When I had to licence my car after a 9 yr rebuild, the examiner tried like hell to pick something to reject it (you have to be a certain kind of guy to do the job - some sort of envy comlex I reckon!!) - anyway, it got to through everything, then I could almost see a wry smile on his face as he brought in the prismatic gizmo to check the headlights. I reckon a relative of his must have invented it!

He became irritable when they were lined up prefectly (but then again, a friend had forewarned me about this guy and his fetish for headlights!!!).

I say all this as I'm sure Chris' method would not pass our inspections. The lights should be aimed lower than horizontal, maybe to take into account travelling with loads in the back of the vehicle - any how, a call may just give you the right info.
Roger H

Tough inspector! In New Jersey, if the lights come on, you pass. Needless to say many of our motorists are blinded on a nightly basis.

Don
D Hasara

Roger,
I remember those prismatic gizmos! Back when I lived
in British Columbia the motor vehical inspectors would
carry them around on there key chains.
Luckily, Ontario where Joe and I live dosen't have those inspectors. As long as a licsenced mechanic
says the the car is "safe" you get to drive it.
Mind you we also have to pass a smog test. It is nothing more than a cash grab that virtually any car
with 2 litres of methel hydrate mixed into the tank
can pass. I have no love of smog, I've breathed in my
fair share just driving a Triumph, but spending millions to get a few wrecks off the road is nuts.
Sorry for the rant, we canucks are known for it.
Christopher Trace

What I do is adjust the low beams so the drivers side "spot" hits about 100' dead center in front, and the other light hits the shoulder. That way the lows aren't pointing into oncoming drivers eyes. It seems the "high beams" might be offset a bit in the lamp, or the optics are set to compensate as they illuminate the whole road when on.

BB
Brent B

Chris
Where I live, we do not have smog testing...YET!
I am curious. Do older/antique cars have to pass the smog test also? Is there a cut of date for age of car?
Rick C
Rick Crawford

In the UK, cars made before 1975 (I think) only have to not make visible smoke. The regs get tougher as the cars get newer.

Mike
Mike Howlett

Rick,
At the moment, any car twenty five years and older
does not have to do the drive clean test in Ontario.
I have yet to see an old car guy like us that didn't
take pride in his car and make sure it was running as well as it possibly could. Having said that, I'm sure that not many of our cars could be discribed as "clean
running". I average 2,500 miles per season so my guilt
level is low enviromentaly speaking. But having been raised Catholic, a small amount of guilt is a relative
term.
Christopher Trace

This thread was discussed between 14/09/2004 and 16/09/2004

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