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This is a minor issue but one that I would like to resolve while my car sits during the winter. My headlights are not perfectly even. It's imperceptible when they're open, but when they close, one lid shuts smooth with the body and the other is up just a bit. It bugs me. Like having the correct angle on the muffler tips. It's right or it's not. Is there any way to resolve this? Are the buckets welded to the actuation rod?
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The brackets are welded to the cross bar. The adjustment is in the slop of the mounting holes. Remove the splash shield and reach up with a 1/4" ratchet with 10mm socket, loosen and adjust to your liking. Be carefull becuase the rearward edge of the top comes real close to the fender when opening and closing. The rubber stops on my car were too thick and kept one corner up on each of mine. I found thinner rubber bumpers at the hardware store and fixed that problem.
Note also in the sketch above there are two plastic bushings on both ends of the actuating bar. These bushings are often worn thru and fall out. If both bushings on one end are gone, the bar probably sags on that end, besides causing squeaks during headlight raise/lower. This might complicate any leveling tweeks. The bushings can theoretically be changed, but it appears to be a LOT of work. FWIW, the headlight bar was installed before both the outer fenders were welded in place. I'm told that to completely remove a stock headlight bar, it must be cut in three (3) places before the chunks can be pulled out.
Thanks for all the feedback. I've already adjusted the four mounting bolts when I installed the Vader lights - I actally had a factory wire wrapped around one bolt and quite well secured by the nut, amazing it didn't short in 40 years. I'm hoping it's the rubber bumpers (they're not really rubber any more) but I suspect it's the bushings on the bar.
Interesting posts, wanted to chime in and mention that the buckets can be shimmed on their mounting surface (i.e., add spacers), which increases the possible range of adjustment considerably. If the bushing are shot, shimming would clearly NOT fix the fundemental problem. But if your buckets are slighly mis-clocked for some reason, (as mine were) shimming may do the trick -
The buckets have the tendency of doing this once removed from the factory assembly points like for painting the car.
Seemingly a very simple fix but in reality,
they can give all sorts of indications that there is something wrong, like the bar is twisted or the bushings are worn, etc.

Rarely is that the case. They usually are just not sitting where they were originally set by the factory. Find that spot and they will be fine. No shims, no bushings no nothing.

Forget about trying to fit them uniformly in the fenders too. That will just screw the whole mess up all over again.

Trust me on this one. I speak from a lot of experience on this issue.

There must have been one person that did this on the assembly line .Forget about trying to find them an asking how they did it.

That person long ago was instatuionalized and put in a straightjacket in a padded cell to prevent suicide attempts. Even if he didn't succede, I doubt they can speak rationally without going berzerk all over again? Wink
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