Date:         Thu, 14 May 2009 09:33:52 -0500
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      Headlight Adjuster Fix - Upper Outboard Corner
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Yarrrrgh!! Another broken adjuster. Now I have a broken one on each side
of the van. I was working and just bumped that sucker and it fell to
pieces. Rotten, brittle plastic. Now these parts are NLA - What to do,
what to do?

Well, I considered it, and came up with two ways to go about this. These
methods assume the front portion of the adjuster where the screw head is
is still functional. In my experience it is the bases that fail most often.

Solution  #1:
1) Removed all shards of the old adjuster base, leaving the functioning
upper part where the screw head is in place. Nothing was wrong with it.
2) Cleaned and lightly sanded the surface on both sides of the metal
where the old base snapped in place.
3) Greased the existing screw with vaseline.
4) Mixed epoxy putty, and squished it around the screw and through the
holes in the sheet metal, so the epoxy putty had physical connection on
both sides of the sheet metal.
5) As the epoxy hardened, I turned the screw gently, to prevent it from
being grabbed by the epoxy. The vaseline was the release agent.
6) Epoxy hardened - now I have a solid base for the screw, the light is
now securely fastened and doesn't move around, and the light alignment
can be adjusted.
Comment: A certain amount of eyeballing must be done to be sure things
are in place as this goes together.

Not an elegant solution, but it works. And, it will prol'ly last as long
as those stupid plastic adjusters.

Solution #1 is a quick fix, but you Volks living in very cold climates
may want to consider Solution #2 since we( me being an old Alaskan) know
what cold does to plastic things.

Solution #2:
1) Remove all shards of the old adjuster base, leaving the functioning
upper part where the screw head is in place. Nothing  wrong with it.
2) Clean and lightly sand the surface on both sides of the metal where
the old base snapped in place
3) From 3/16 in. or 1/4 in, sheet steel or aluminum (  Aluminum is
easier) cut a piece big enough to cover the adjuster-base hole, and have
a bit of lip beyond the edge of the hole.
4) Identify the size and thread of the screw and drill a hole dead
center of the metal, then tap it with a threading tap for the adjuster
screw.
5) Epoxy this metal plate into position over the existing adjuster base
hole, centering the drilled hole over the adjuster base hole.
6) Run the adjuster crew into the new threaded hole.
7) On the opposite side away from the light, a steel nut with a friction
locking ring can be epoxied to the metal plate. BE SURE to lubricate the
screw so the epoxy doesn't get into where it doesn't belong and lock
things up.

OK - there it is. A fairly elegant way to get around the NLA adjuster
problem, and it should last a long time. If you want to REALLY make
certain, fasten the metal plate with the new threaded hole to the sheet
metal with a couple of pop rivets..And if you have access to aircraft
hardware - be it a store or a catalog - you can find fiber lock nuts
with a tab on one side that can also be riveted or screwed down to
anchor them. In aircraft applications they are most often riveted in place.

I opted for the first solution due to time constraints, but I plan to
come back to it and apply solution #2, which - with the pop rivets, is a
bit more secure, less likely to be affected by temperature.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver,
Chelsea, AL