Hello friends, I wanted to share this little excursion into auto sluething, just in case anyone may be experiencing a similar scenario-
I had an interesting experience this past week driving my Vette in the dark!
The driver's side headlight was "drooping"! It looked like my Cordelia had too much to drink, or had a bad eye lift appointment! What was worse, it would shimmy and shake like it wasn't even fastened! Yikes!
I had replaced the old oem headlamps with new ACA style housings back in the winter, and I knew that the prior owner had replaced the gears with brass ones before I ever bought the car, so it seemed a good mystery to try and solve!

Searching here on CF, I found that the bump-stops (or headlight insulators) could be a culprit, as there was no telltale chattering motor noises of stripped gear teeth when I operated the headlights.
Taking off the top lid and surround shroud, I found that the metal pin that holds the motor arm to the upper assembly had come out! It had fallen into the lower front well by the foglights and air ducts! There had been a metal "collar"-like nut that has a pressure fit, which came off (most likely when I was clumsiliy reassembling the new housings). That nut was long gone, but the long metal pin was indeed sitting patiently at the bottom of the bumper, waiting to be retrieved and put back into service.

Whew! Half off the job was getting my hands down into the well area beneath the headlamp, ultimately taking the screws out from under the front fascia to allow the pin to just drop ot the ground.
The other balancing act required me to reinsert the pin without taking the whole carriage apart. The errant pin only fell from my grasp about six times (or maybe more like eleven!)
I finally got it back in place, found a similar-styled locking/pressure fit nut, and now Miss Cordelia no longer looks like the victim of a bad "eye job" anymore!

Hope this may be of some help in case anyone finds their headlamp looking a bit droopy- check the motor arm connections for lost pins.
Thanks for reading, and happy motoring!

 

Good info thanks

 

Nice find. Always good to have easy and cheap fixes once in a while.

Forgot to ask, how do you like the ACA's and what bulbs are you running?

 

Amen to finding a cheap fix!!
I really like the new housings, and I'm using the supplied bulbs (9005)


I did have the 9012 modded bulbs in the oem housings, so I can swap them in when these burn out. I don't drive the car at night very much, but those times I do, I've been impressed with the new throw of the beam.
And cosmetically, I definitely prefer the appearance of these!
They resemble (to me, at least) the C2 light housings



I'm not intending to mod with LED bulbs at this time, as I don't really use the car at night, and these lights work to my personal satisfaction.

 

Nice, I've always liked the look of the ACA's. So both places take stock bulbs then, high and low beams? I may jusg have to consider these more then. Thanks for the comments on them and the pictures. They look great.

 

Thanks for posting your fix.