My headlight bounces when I hit a bump in the road. When I grab the housing and lift up and down it moves about 1/4". I can see the play where the pivot shaft rotates in the bearing. It looks like a nasty job to remove the butt'y to change the bearings.
Anyone have experience and tips for save, easy removal and installation of the bearings. :flag

 

Mine are the same. I didn't notice until after I had put the light assembly back on after i had just painted the vette. It not that hard but there are a lot of pcs. :cheers:

 

Place masking tape around the entire headlight opening on the body before you begin to eliminate chipping and scratching. If you have turn signal grills, (early 70's) take em out. Makes it easier to reach up in there. Might be a good time to replce all those pesky, cheap, plastic bushings in the headlight assembly too!!!
Good Luck
Eddie

 

Those bushing assemblies bolt on to the housing ... so
if you can get in there with a (7/16 or 3/8) wrench, you might be able to
replace them without removing the entire assembly.

Still put a layer of tape around the opening, as the door will get floppy when
the bushing is removed. I have pictures of everything somewhere ...
I'll try to dig them up.

OK - Here's a good pic to see the parts.

I would suggest NOT removing the entire assembly from the car. There were
many areas on my assemblies that were corroded and weak. It didn't take
much to make parts of them fall off ... then you'll be buying new ones.
I would remove the bulbs and black metal buckets first. After removing these,
it will look like the picture of the 75 in my signature below.

The bushing assemblies can be seen on the inside-back of the frame. There
are three bolts that come from the outside of the frame - threaded into the
bushing holders. These should be relatively easy to get out. I only snapped
one out of all of these bolts. The TOUGH one may be the pivot bolt that connects
the linkage to the cover (front-center). This must be removed to get the cover off.
Mine was fused (steel to aluminum) together ... ended up drilling, tapping,
and engineering a 'better' way. Original has a plastic bushing on this pivot bolt.
This may be part of your problem, too.

Now that I look closely and try to remember ... there may be a set screw
on the bushing itself that needs to loosen to wiggle out of the housing frame.



:seeya


[Modified by NHvette, 5:11 PM 1/20/2004]

 

Make sure your lower housing isn't broke. Most times when the light is bouncing up and down the mount ear on the housing is broke. The housing is made out of white metal and they crack in half( look at the photo above in the front where the bolt holes are)

The bushings that you refer to are a round plastic that mount on the ends of the upper housing.

To remove the housing you will need to remove the three mounting bolts on the each end of the housing and remove the large bolt in the center of the housing. Also on the outer end you will see a arm that is held on by two bolts remove the arm.

When you have all of the bolts removed the upper headlight housing will come out. You may need to pry it from the lower housing.

It is also easier to do the job with the hood removed. I just removed both upper housings from a 71 yesterday at work to get a car painted. I had both out in about 20 mins.




[Modified by Corvette ED, 6:22 PM 1/20/2004]

 

I thank all of you for your input. I do have the hood off because I was detailing in front of the radiator. I will remove the grilles and proceed as directed. I'm just afraid of ruining the paint around the light opening when I loosen the various bolts. I think the tape and a little care will prevent any problems. Thanks again :flag

 

Tape both the opening and the lip of the upper headlight lid. You will be ok!!!