Headlamp Alignment

[davidb]

Anyone have a Cibie/Carello or Hella alignment sheet they can
post in PDF format? Mine are long gone. I have 4 new Hella
headlamps + under bumper fogs I've got to aim. I used to know
this stuff by root but that was yrs. ago. Thanks! [P.S. I know
about "balancing" the car.]

[pabeaver]

For headlights (low) beams, 2 inches down at 25 feet. For fogs, 4 inches at 25 feet.

[DJ]

Center or top of beam?

[pabeaver]

Stick a ruler off the floor in front of the lamp and look for the brightest 'spot', then measure the 'spot' on a wall at 25 feet and aim the 'spot' to be 2 or 4 inches lower then the lamp, depending on what lamp you are aiming.

This is in most Haynes manual I have seen in the non-car-specific sections. It was also the same as the instructions that came with a set of Hella's that I got.

[davidb]

Some of this is coming back to me. 2" down may be right for low
beams. Yet I thought highs are to be level, straight ahead. Maybe
it's lows 4" down & highs 2" down. Dunno. I'll google for aiming info.
Thanks.

[Jim Keller]

Why does everyone always seem to look for the most difficult in-accurate way to do things I ask?! LOL

The hillbilly way:

Drive your good newer or known good adjusted headlighted car up to the entrance of your garage door, mark the front leading edge and centerline of this newer cars headlight location, turn on low beams and driving lights, go to garage wall on opposite side of garage, carefully find and mark the very center point of the beam for each light in pencil on the wall, go back, flip on bright lights, mark center of brights and of course, notate which mark is which, then park your good newer daily, pull your Beta up to the garage so the headlights are exactly centered and at front leading edge, (in otherwords, exact position of your other car), turn on driving lights and low beams, adjust to marks, turn on high beams, adjust to marks, pick up what ever you used to mark center front leading edge of headlamps from garage floor and erase pencil marks on garage wall, go drive and enjoy.....it really is that simple!

[davidb]

I found some good instructions by Googling. For the headlamps
that is. I'll stick w/the 4" suggested for the fogs. I've done this
in yrs. past. Tape measures, yardstick, several colors of chalk,
cardboard & duct tape. Used to do it in the bottom level of
an office bldg., underground garage. The dim florescent ceiling
lights give you enough ambient light to see what you're doing +
your lights show really well against the concrete wall. I wonder
what the janitor thought of my chalk marks after the fact? Cave
paintings, Satanic glyphs, bore here?