Headlights

[mp470]

Hi all,

I've started replacing the big old headlight bulbs and stupidly did not look up how to do it properly.  I ended up removing the whole headlight assembly instead of the grille and now having some trouble getting it back in with the spring tension and all. Any advice or tricks?

Thanks,

Mike

[ctubutis]

I don't remember anything special about about those parts but nor do I remember the assembly instructions, I guess I'd just figure it out.

If you can't get unstuck, maybe post a pic or 2 to here showing the specific situation?

[Gary Lewis]

Would this help?  http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/headlights-and-turn-signals.html

[mp470]

It definitely does, thanks.  I will try it with the bulb out now that I know it can be done.  It was late last night and was getting frustrated.

[Gary Lewis]

Glad it helps.  You might want to poke around this site and see what else is there.  There are over 350 pages of documentation on the Bullnose trucks, and that grows almost daily.  

[mp470]

I did look for the headlight section but did not come across the page you linked earlier.  All I found was the headlight wiring harness page.

[Gary Lewis]

And, you've just pointed out a major problem in the way I set up pages early on.  

Here's a screenshot of that Headlight page.  If you'll notice it says absolutely nothing about headlights, other than in the links at the top of the page.  When Google is crawling a site to find out what is on it in order to find it when you search it ignores links.  So Google doesn't know that the page has anything at all to do with headlights.  And, therefore, when you use the search function at the top of the page looking for "headlight", as I just did, it does not find this page.  

Ok, I need to update a bunch of pages!  Soon Google will be able to find them, but not until I upgrade them and then Google's bots crawl the pages again.  

[mp470]

Interesting, it's under fasteners of all places.   It doesn't hurt to browse other sections that you aren't looking for at the time, always end up learning something.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, it doesn't hurt to browse.  BUT, you are supposed to be able to use the search function at the top of the page to find something on the site.  However, said something cannot be found if there are no words describing it.

I wish there was an emoticon with egg on its face.    I've just realized that not a one of my Cooling System pages was visible to Google's search engine because there was no text telling of the gold mine of information on those pages.  Just like the Fastener pages.  So I've now added verbiage to the Cooling System and Fastener pages that will let Google find them.  And I have a lot more pages to work through - although not tonight.

This web site has been, and will continue to be I'm sure, a learning experience.  I started it a little less than two years ago with just a few pages, and now we are well over 350.  But, along the way I've learned a bit about what Google is looking for when the bots "crawl" a site - words describing what information is on that page.  And pages that don't have those words cannot be found with a Google search.

I recently upgraded the verbiage on the page for engine perches and the one for towing capacity, and those pages are now getting found in searches much more frequently.  So tonight's work should similarly boost the usage of the cooling system and fastener pages.  And, since my goal is to have the world's most helpful site to Bullnose owners, this should significantly help in that regard.  So, thank you for finding the problem!  

[mp470]

Glad to contribute in some way other than knowledge about these trucks which I don't have much of quite yet.  This site really is much more helpful than one of the bigger more general forums.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks!  

[mp470]

Well, it was a lot easier to get the headlight assembly in properly without the grille and the lightbulb in the way.  Unfortunately I stripped the threads off of the adjusting bolt so it's no more.  Any idea what the thread pitch / size is on these?  I looked at the diagram but it wasn't listed.

[85lebaront2]

if you stripped the actual adjusting screw you may be able to find them in Dorman's "help" section.

[Gary Lewis]

I'm with Bill - you may be able to find it in the Help section.

But, to answer your question it is a 10-32 screw.  However, it needs the ring at the top to ensure the headlight follows the screw.  If you need one that one's an extra - just email me your address.

[mp470]

Thank you for the kind offer, I was able to rig something up using a similar bolt from Napa and some creativity.

[Gary Lewis]

Glad you got it fixed. 👍

[Gary Lewis]

Just to follow up on this, I've revised the information I had on this website about the headlight adjusting screw.  If you had clicked on the blue box surrounding the #13032 on the page in the link you'd have been taken to a picture of the screw and nut and a link to Dennis Carpenter as a source.  But, I've added the bit about it being a 10-32 screw as well as the Dorman number and another source - Amazon.

In addition I've realized that the #13032 is oddly-placed on the master parts catalog's illustration that I'm using and isn't easily associated with the screw and nut.  Yes, there are two black arrows pointing from it to those two items, but that wasn't intuitively obvious to me, so I added red arrows hoping to make it more obvious.

All in all, this has been a very helpful exchange!  

[ctubutis]

There can be a lot of work put into these things sometimes, I'm glad you're finding the opportunities, Gary. :)

[mp470]

It's coming along nicely. There are also two Napa part numbers:

NOE 6651685 and 6651072.  It doesn't specify the differences between them.

[Gary Lewis]

I think NAPA is a bit confused.  Both part numbers are said to fit my truck, and both give you two items with the same UPC code.  But one is $2.24 and one is $5.66.  I know it says $2.24/ea, but it says you get 2 adjusting screws and it is the same UPC.  But even if it really was each, that would be $4.48, not $5.66.