Headlight aiming..

[Arnoldtheskier]

Mine has 2 smooth vertical metal rods..not threaded..no screw head or bolt head. These go straight down to the acutal adjusters where they meet. There is some coverred connection,fitting there.The adjusters are horizontal..these rods meet them there. The manual is very unclear about this. Perhaps these unthread with pliers..allowing the adjsuters to move?..Or you pull them up? allowing the adjusters to move? I dunno..anyone know?

Thanks..

[lovemyescort]

The rods should have a hexagon shaped end. That means, you can turn them with a small hex key nut.
One rod turns the headlight up and down and the other one left and right. Drop a couple drops of machine oil on the connection link on the bottom of each rod to loosen up old grime and help the mechanic to turn.
Good luck!

[Arnoldtheskier]

Thanks for that! After some digging I found..from 3 manuals and Ford..That some of these composite set-ups are alignable..and some are not. The ones that have..as you said..Thanks! the hex head rods are adjustable. The one that are smooth..like mine..factory setMAY be adjustable.
I do also know that touching rusty headlight adjusters is often a no no.
Ford can maybe get some of the adjusting rods.

I phoned a couple of bone yards here. They laughed and said NEVER to touch those things..LOL..UNLESS you had the right rods etc., to put it back together. They said that I could come..find a couple of good headlights..remove them for them..to save them the labour so they could simply re-stock them and sell them..and have any hardware,rods etc for $5.

That's what I will do.

[lovemyescort]

Wow! I'm amazed that Ford made a science out of something simple like headlight adjusters. Mine have the hex ending and the adjusters were not corroded. I adjusted my headligths with pretty little efforts. Before the Escort, I had a Tempo (by the way, Tempos are pieces of Sh@#$t). The adjusters of the Tempo completely fell apart. Since I had no intention at all to put in a lot of effort by trying to replace them I adjusted the headlights and just drilled screws through the adjusters to hold them in place. I know that this is a very unprofessional way to fix it but it did the trick for an old junky car that didn't deserve much attention any more.
I aplaud you for your efforts to replace these tricky little pieces of equipment!

[Arnoldtheskier]

Just 1 of those things. The car does need the headlights aimed. No they are not blinding other drivers. It also needs new headlights. They aren't that bad but I do a LOT! of nite time bad weather driving Nov. to April. I just like every advantage I can get and to keep the car in really good shape. I was actually thinking of doing a do it yourself fix. Not a big deal to do it right in this case. The bone yard is not far