wiggly headlight pod

jvandyke

jvandyke

True Classic
I noticed my right headlight pod would flicker and jiggle over bumps. It has a bit of play in it. There's a threaded rod coming off the linkage from the motor, what looks like a coupling nut and a lock nut. I could not get the coupling nut to budge after loosening the lock nut. Is this how the pods are "fine tuned" or am I barking up the wrong tree?
 
Pod Stop.

There is a rubber stop on the cross memeber that the pod should nudge up against when up. The linkage will adjust the stroke of the travell of the light bucket.

The stop is adjustable, possibly the rubber has come off and is now in the bottom of the head light well.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
 
Okay, will look at that. The right side of this car was hit pretty hard at some point, all that stuff has been messed with so likely not set back up quite right back then.
 
Spring button is missing

The part that keeps the headlight pod from bouncing around is a white plastic thing with a black button protruding from it. It's on a very stiff spring that presses against the headlight pod when it's open.

I'd have to guess yours is missing or broken.

It's above and slightly in front of the headlight motor shaft. It's held in with two very small nuts on very small studs. They often sieze up and someone snaps the studs off. If your studs are still intact, I'd recommend you replace the steel nuts with nylon.
Since it's nylon you don't have to match the metric size for it to work. I think I used 6-32 nuts.

The right and left side are different, so if you go to get a replacement, you need to get one from the right side. Worst-case, you should have some nubs left which would be enough to hold it in position; you can stick the spring button on there with silicone rubber or something.

The turnbuckle type threaded rod adjustment is for the position of the headlight pod. In order to move that, you need to loosen both lock nuts (there is one at each end). Note that one is right hand thread and the other side is left hand thread. But if your headlight is closing properly (level with the front sheetmetal), you don't want to mess with that.

The rubber stop should be adjusted so the headlight pod presses lightly against it when it's closed; that keeps it from bouncing around when it's down.
 
one other item to check -

There are brass bushings pressed into the pod where it mounts. Use a heat gun to heat the pod and the bushings come out. These can get sloppy and let the headlight jiggle around. Other than that you've had several other good suggestions. Check all areas and refurbish as you find something that seems loose. A lot of little sloppy items will add up to to bigger slop. That was sloppy.

I did this to a pod last year and it is very snug now. Matt at Midwest has the bronze / brass pod bushings.

JimV
 
Okay, more to check. I didn't see anything like the white plastic spring loaded thing. Will have to look for a diagram of what is supposed to be there. It is very wiggily and quite bothersome at night.
 
Wyverndude said:
The part that keeps the headlight pod from bouncing around is a white plastic thing with a black button protruding from it. It's on a very stiff spring that presses against the headlight pod when it's open.

I'd have to guess yours is missing or broken.
Click to expand...

Yep, not there.
Are these to be had? I will look and ask and if not, make one. Do the have a name?
 
I think I have one

jvandyke said:
Yep, not there.
Are these to be had? I will look and ask and if not, make one. Do the have a name?
Click to expand...

or maybe two. I bought a 79 years ago that came with 75 and 77 parts cars. I brought the 79 and 75 home, but I could not bring home so the seller hacked it up for me on the spot. He cut both headlight pods off for me. I just looked at one and there is definitely a white plastic thingy, with a very stiff black rubber thingy sticking out of it in the pod.

It's yours for the cost of postage Jeff. I may not be able to get it out till next week. My son graduates Saturday and I am driving to Matt's open house on Sunday. Busy, busy, bee. :)
 
Got some from Jim (thanks!).
Put it in and it wouldn't reach the headlight. I can tell by marks that the light is installed higher than it used to be. I assume in order to line it up with the top of the fender/trunk/nose. This front corner was hit at some point in the car's life. I extended the end of the plunger/steadier thing and it's helping. Used a steel spacer tube, cut down and spread open a bit at the seam into a bit of a cone, rubber stopper in the headlight end and the other end shoved onto the existing steadier thing. Works. I guess I don't have much choice but to live with it. I hope the frame/body isn't tweaked on this thing, the passenger door fit is poor too. Looks okay besides that and seems to track down the road well.
I guess it could be that they compensated for headlight pod fitment by moving the whole pod instead of that threaded rod /coupling nut. I'll have to try putting the pod back where it belongs, then trying to adjust with the threaded rod, ya think?
 
How far off was it?

Could you add a few washers under the headlight steadier thingy instead of the addition you added? maybe even knock the existing studs out, drill new holes and use longer bolts to allow a taller underside spacer??
 
JimD said:
Could you add a few washers under the headlight steadier thingy instead of the addition you added? maybe even knock the existing studs out, drill new holes and use longer bolts to allow a taller underside spacer??
Click to expand...

It's about 3/8" too short. I thought of the spacers underneath too. I'm thinking maybe a spacer plate underneath, in addition to the elongator I already made might do it. I don't think the bolts are long enough for the spacer underneath to do the whole job. My other idea of changing the whole mounting position and making up the difference with the adjuster probably won't work as the closed position would then be different then the level of surrounding sheet metal. Even as it sits now is a vast improvement and might be enough, won't know until the next night drive.
Another thought was a screw straight down into the top of the existing black plunger end, then a rubber cap of some sort on the screw head, would allow for fine tuning by turning the screw in or out a few turns.

PS no way to get the front nut on. Wanted to go in through the headlight but the screws that hold it in are stripped. One on the rear seems pretty dang solid to me.
 
messed up

okay, so the "support" rod springy thing is too short, I pulled the whole pod to find the outside bracket appears to have been cut and slotted apparently in order to allow it to be mounted higher to line up. Ouch. Also the pod "lid" to bracket bolts are very loose. Looks like I'm trying to re-engineer an old crash damage repair, eh?
This is the bracket
headlightbracketmodded.jpg


This was written inside the pod.
salvagedpod.jpg
 
Missing bushing?

It's so sloppy here. Is there supposed to be a bushing in there? If so, maybe they hacked up the bracket to mount the pod higher to make up for the slop of the missing bushing? I don't think that would account for it all though. I think I need some bushings, maybe another non-hacked bracket and I can try an put it all back correctly.
podbushing.jpg


One of these per side or two per side?
http://marketplaceadvisor.channelad...l.aspx?sid=1&sfid=208227&c=193049&i=250926564

Maybe that would account for it all.....that's a big bushing.
 
One per side.

There is one per side. If you take yours apart you will see the recess it goes in to. That would account for the modified bracket.
 
Bushings are there. The shoulders on the bolts protrude too far out the other side, not allowing for tightening. Maybe the washer under the bolt head is too small, see pic above, does that look right?

too much shoulder sticks through, no?
podbolt.JPG
 
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Bummer

jvandyke said:
Maybe that would account for it all.....that's a big bushing.
Click to expand...

I think I tossed the rest of the loose parts after I sent you the springy things. I saved the pods, so maybe the bushings are still hooked to them somehow.
 
I thought the bushings were gone but they're still there (and not TOO worn by the feel of them) The bracket to pod connection is loose because the shoulder on the bolt won't allow the nut to tighten. I suspect the washer that is there is too thin, the wrong one or missing something. I understand you don't want it tight, it must pivot after all but there is too much slop here by far. Doesn't account for the modified bracket though. Haven't found a diagram of this in the manual yet. The other side (unmolested, most likely) seems to have at least one washer on the outboard side of the pod but something is taking up some of that space, maybe the bushing face or something......
 
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I added some washers to allow a bit of tightening on the pivot bolts, left them loose enough to allow movement but just a tad snug to remove slop. Little grease too. I took a minute to coat some potential rust zones with some left over POR15 (surprisingly still okay after a month or so in a canning jar, sitting in hot humid garage (now in fridge, don't tell wife).
I drilled a hole in the top of springy tensioner thing (that keeps the light steady when up) hoping to put a screw in the end with a rubber cap on it (it doesn't reach the pod when it is up, tensioner too short, bracket mod to raise pod to fit surrounded metal is the cause of this). This worked okay although the black "rubber" piston was hollow, I hoped it was solid. Rubber cap was some sort of rubber stopper cap found at hardware store. I cannot adjust out the uneven fit though. The above bracket was modded for some reason. The whole fender might have been replaced. Were there any differences from year to year in fender/pod mountings? I can't imagine there were. The pod when down fits decent on three corners but the forward inside corner is higher than the nose sheet metal by quite a bit, 1/4" or so. Will live with it. Pod feels very solid when up, so mission accomplished.
PS didn't not put snap ring on motor control arm linkage, couldn't get it on, it wasn't on when I started, found it in bottom of well. It isn't going anywhere I don't think.
 
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