Stan944

A bracket for mounting the headlight assembly (the whole thing that moves up and down) broke and I need to put a new one. This is the triangular plate with a shaft attached to it, that works like a hinge. Anyway, it's rather hard to put it back together, as you need to simultaneously compress the (very) hard spring and slide it in. I did it once a long time ago, and used a long F-clamp to hold everything together. It worked, but wasn't perfect.
Did anybody come up with a clever way of installing the assembly back into the chassis?
Thanks, Stan

88BlueTSiQuest

That spring assembly isn't supposed to just come apart, the plastic bushing that's pressed in place is supposed to hold the spring assembly together. I'm having trouble, as my driver's side plastic bushing is worn, and it keeps popping loose, thus allowing the headlight to 'drop' into the headlight hole.

If the only part you are replacing is the 3 hole triangular hinge for the assembly, you shouldn't have to do anything with the spring assembly. Simply remove the circlip on the lifting arm and disconnect the balljoint from the linkeage, pull the 3 bolts holding each hinge on, and remove the full headlight assembly, so that you can remove the busted hinge and replace it with a new one. The spring and the forks should stay aligned through this procedure, so long as the plastic bushing is doing it's job.

Here's what it looks like when that bushing fails, and the spring pops the assembly loose.



The hinges are in place, and the whole assembly is bolted in correctly, it's the bushing alone that retains the spring.

Stan944

Thanks for the reply. You're probably correct that the spring assembly will stay in place if everything is working properly. Unfortunatley, I remember (2 years ago) everything separated upon removing the assembly. I don't remember any circlips, so this is probably why I had such a hard time...

88BlueTSiQuest

The Circlip I'm referring to is located at the lifting rod itself. Where the rod that spans the whole front of the car, meets the U shaped bracket that's bolted to the car frame.

I took a picture of each side, so you can identify it.

Passenger's side.



Driver's side.




Now, if you pop off that circlip, and remove the washer, then use a flat blade screwdriver or pry bar, you can pop that ball joint out of it's seat. With the balljoint popped out, the whole headlight assembly can be removed without messing with that spring. The only problem you could run into is one similar to mine. And that's the fact that the plastic bushing on my driver's side light isn't doing it's job at retaining the spring in place.

Stan944

Thanks for the pictures - now I understand what you meant. I'll try it.
Right now I'm waiting for the part.
To make it less likely to separate, I'll compress the spring with a hose clamp before dissassembly.

88BlueTSiQuest

Hope it stays together for you, good luck