Headlight aim adjustments By bobf (Read 5,322 times)

[bobf]

Topic has been posted before but no responses, so I try again. I feel like it was well covered about a year or so back but no matter what I search for I never come up with a headlight adjustment for my scooter.

I have a car manual that I was thinking of using for instructions. Things like distance from the target wall. Height of light location centers - at, above, or below, the lamps height from ground. I assume this would be enough to get me approximate to right.

Any thoughts on this set up?
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[prodigit]

I remember when going for the annual checkup in Belgium, the cars have to go through headlight alignment. There's this tool that the mechanics have, with a lens that will show if the vehicle is according to specifications. Back in the days it's just popping the hood, and adjusting one adjustment screw, if the alignment was off.
I've never had to deal with it in Florida, because there is no annual check up.

[bobf]

Amazing that Florida has dropped auto inspections. When I lived in South Florida we had inspections. A sudden stop platform to test each wheels braking. The headlight station as you described. Paper work check and general appearance and other items they looked at.

Well in Colorado and Arizona where I have lived in recent years safety has taken second place to emissions tests.

My earlier post said 'care manual' but I really meant 'car manual' so I will change that next.

I wonder where that post from a year ago may have gone?
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[bobf]

OK, I Googled 'proper headlight adjustment motorcycles'. Most of the posts I looked at used 25' as the distance and one line at the same height as the center of the headlight for the high beams and a second 2" lower for the lower beams. They also talk about a center line so I created one of those too. So now I have a plywood panel with the two horizontal lines and the center line. Pretty hot so I will just wait till tomorrow morning when it is cooler to take the scoot out and align it with the board 25' apart.

I will easily be able to set the lamps to the levels indicated starting with the low beam line. If the high beam seems reasonable then I leave things alone. If too high for the high beams then I will compromise the two settings with the lines.

One thing I never found was how the head lights were to relate to the center line. Should they both match the center line, on high or low setting. Should they lights be a bit right of center to avoid blinding the coming traffic, or is that built into the high and low beams at the bulb manufacturer's plant? Nothing I found was really clear so I will have to do the best I can and make my own judgements.

Anyone know of real specs on alignment just jump in and let me know.

[jct842]

Almost every bike I ever owned required that My weight be sitting on it with feet not resting hard on the ground. What I have done with most of my bikes and scooters bikes in last 20 years is to get the adjustment in the ball park then go out on a level road at night with a screw driver for the final adjustment.

Now a Gold wing is really nice to adjust while riding, it has a knob on the left side of the fairing for up and down. If your weight came down evenly across the two wheels and bike went down even it would be one thing but when you sit on one either the front or rear goes down a little furthor than the other and changes the adjustment.

[prodigit]

most scoots have such hard suspension, that with or without weight it would make little difference, unless you're over 220LBS

[bobf]

Now you are talking about me with over 220 lbs. Not much though.

On further reading I also came across the idea of marking the center line of each lamp so I can see if they are straight or right or left of center. I tried this morning so it would be cool but the sun was shining straight at my target so now I am waiting for a darker period later this afternoon. It will be hotter than now but maybe it won't take too long to check and correct.

I don't plan on riding at night but I do want the lights to be set reasonably. Sometimes during the day I come across M/C's that have their lights right into my eyes. No need to do that to other drivers, day or night.
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[bobf]

Status update. I tried for hours to get the headlights aimed, no luck at all. So I took the headlights out of the scoot and took them out of the case. On some screws I was at the low limit on others about mid point. The lights were point in wild directions and never to anything like a spec position. One screw was completely out of the slider that carries the light up or down, left or right. So I ended up putting things back to a mid position and made sure all were working properly.
Sounds good so far.

After reinstalling in the scooter and getting the plastic all screwed down I set the bike up for more headlight aiming.

This time both the left and right lights show the high beam at the high point. That then says I don't mess with that yet. But the high beam of the left was on the mark for the right high beam and the high beam of the right was on the high beam mark for the left high beam. A bad case of cross eyes. I keep fiddling with the left right adjustments but can not get rid of the cross eye problem. I have moved the right beam to the center line mark and the left beam toward the center line mark but still on the right side of center line. I have run out of adjustment on the screw I assume to be the one to affect the left right position. I still have some ability to move the second screw that may have some ability to move the left right position.

My adjusters on the back of the lamp housing is this. The plus signs indicate the three adjustments on each.

Left..........................................................................................Right

+....................................................................................................+

..+....+..................................................................................+.....+..

(I had to toss in all those periods as the automatic editing destroyed my sketch. It was all a blob on the left margin.)

On each I think the top position is for up or down. I never changed those screws and the height stayed where it was.

On the bottom two I have played games with them and never get the left right to work for me. Bring one screw down and the other up, or only one screw down and do nothing to the other. The side to side changed as I described but never got out of the cross eyed position.

Anybody ever tried to align the headlights on a 2008 MC 54 250? Any success? If so, what was your method?

I will try again after dark tonight, on a 25' distance. If I can not make headway soon I will just have to let it be as it is, cross eyed but not set too high either.

Any help at all appreciated.

EDIT to add:

I just tried at 25' and the cross eye problem is exaggerated. Just not sure where to go next. I will need to get a inspection and license soon. I don't know if they check head light alinements in Arizona or not. If they do I am in trouble. It is a shame these lights are mounted on something so flimsy as the front plastics on these scoots. I would think something more stable and trustworthy would be better.
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[bobf]

Another update on the headlight aim problems. In an attempt to get beyond the cross eyed light path I put washers on the outside screws, top and lower side. Thinking that an offset install would eliminate the cross eyed path of light. A bit of help but still not right. So I then took my setup back to the 10 foot position and made things a sharp as I could to the proper light positions. At 10 feet I had pretty much eliminated the cross eyed look. Back to 25 feet and at least we have the two lights shining pretty much straight forward. But still not right of center for either light. I took the obvious solution at this point, I quite.

Not any comments at this point so my question now is, has anybody ever really tried to aim their lights on a scoot? My scoot is a YY 250 T. A Honda clone engine of 2008 vintage. Maybe I just wasted a lot of hours and sufficient sweat as Arizona has been running well above 100F. Often 105 and as high as 112. I would work in the mornings as long as I could and then excape inside to where the AC was keeping things at about 78F.

Tomorrow I will finish with all the panel installs and get the windshield back on. Then I wait for the temps to start down as fall is now here. I hope to begin riding soon. Temps below 90F will feel pretty good.
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