When you got your safety inspection done in the old days, they would check your headlights to see if they were aimed properly. I seem to remember that it was done with a machine dragged over to your car and lifted up to the light beam. Does no one do that anymore?

I would like to check the aim on Aaron's headlights. How do you do it properly?

Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

Check out the great website this link is from...

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

While there are very fancy & very expensive machines that map the light distribution, etc. The only time I've seen them used was to justify big alignment charges.

There is litte you can do about the shape of the distribution other than changing the lights assembly out. Hi/Lo alignment is a compromise.

The factory method works pretty well. For each model they tell you to find a flat surface and a wall - park the car a certain distance to the wall and mark certain positions on the wall - then turn the 2 adjuster screws (not the holddown screws) in & out to tilt the headlights up/down left/right. The factory manual has pictures of what the distributin should look like.

I've marked my garage doors more-or-less permanently and so see how the headlight alignment looks every time I pull up to the garage. The only time they've been way off is after an accident or when somebody mucked with the settings.
I've found that replacing the sealed beam didn't change the alignment enough to notice.

I bought an inexpensive yellow plastic tool from PepBoys to rest on the sealed beam's alignment pads and with a level in it to help do (up/down) alignments, but the wall technique seems much better.

That's a shame. Optical beamsetters, properly used, are by far the most accurate and precise way to aim headlamps.
True. Bad headlamps are bad headlamps, no matter how they're aimed. On the other hand, any headlamp is dangerous and ineffective if misaimed.
Not really—the compromise is more in the design of high/low beam headlamps, particularly US DOT types (sealed beams and most North American-market replaceable-bulb lamps). That's because in those lamps, the same reflector and optics have to do both jobs (make a low beam, make a high beam) so there's a large degree of compromise. But there is only one correct aim setting for any given set of headlamps mounted at any given height.
So does my headlamp aiming site. Sealed-beam headlamps cannot really be aimed accurately using visual methods, but you can get them into the ballpark by putting them on low beam, reading the "VOR" method on the site, and setting the lamps so that the left edge of the low beam hot spot just barely touches the right side of the "C" line, and the top edge of the low beam hot spot just barely touches the underside of the "H" line. The car has to be parked so the lamps are 25 feet away from the wall, and the ground must be perfectly level, otherwise this method is garbage. That's why a beamsetter is so much better!
Actually, with sealed beam quality control in the toilet (most of them are made on very old tooling that was worn out 15 years ago), it's more important now than it ever was before to recheck aim after lamp replacement—and it's always been pretty important. The aim does change!
These tools, used properly, are better than "up against the wall" methods because all you have to do is find flat ground long enough for the car, not flat ground long enough for the car plus 25 feet. They can't do horizontal aim, though.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

In my area of Florida, I have been unable to find anyone with eqipment to aim sealed beam headlights. There used to be one gas station/garage, but now gas only. Two months ago, I scored a "Hoppy" mechanical aimer at a swap meet for $10. I can do the 7inch round headlites, and the adapters are still available for the smaller "quad round sealed beams, and the rectangular 2, and 4 bulb.

_________________
Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225